Benedict and Sophie’s forbidden love story was teased in the Bridgerton season 4 trailer — in addition to multiple sex scenes.
Netflix released the first look on Thursday, December 25, which showed Benedict (Luke Thompson) once again trying to avoid finding a wife.
“To the season’s most notorious gentleman, Benedict Bridgerton, he must bow to that most powerful of forces: mothers,” Lady Whistledown says in a voiceover before Benedict gets told by Violet (Ruth Gemmell) that he “simply must” marry someone soon.
Benedict’s mother urges him to keep an eye out during her masquerade ball. It is there that the eligible member of the Bridgerton family notices a mysterious woman a.k.a. Sophie (Yerin Ha). He is immediately smitten but she disappears before he finds out her name. The audience, however, knows that Sophie is actually a servant working for a wealthy family.
“He does not want to find me,” Sophie says in the sneak peek. “He wants to find the lady in the silver gown — and she is not real.”
Elsewhere in the trailer, Francesca (Hannah Dodd) is seen kissing her husband, John (Victor Alli), after their dynamic was more chaste in season 3. There is also a sex scene between Alice (Emma Naomi) and Will (Martins Imhangbe) before a blink-and-you-miss-it moment hints at Benedict and Sophie consummating their relationship. Fans of Colin (Luke Newton) and Penelope (Nicola Coughlin) also noticed a steamy moment in a carriage as a callback to their intimate encounter in season 3.
Based on Julia Quinn‘s book series, each season of Bridgerton focuses on a different member of the titular family as they attempt to find love in 19th-century London. The hit Regency show is expected to have eight seasons based on the eight novels written by Quinn about each Bridgerton sibling.
Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) was the initial focus when Bridgerton debuted in 2020. Season 2 followed up with Daphne’s brother Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and then Colin took center stage. The third season marked the first time the TV show strayed from the original order of Quinn’s books by following Colin’s journey over Benedict’s.
Ever since the narrative shakeup, readers have shown their support for Benedict to be the next lead — based on his book An Offer From a Gentleman — while Francesca or Eloise (Claudia Jessie) could be the focus of season 5.
“My hope is that all the siblings will eventually take the lead because we love them [all],” Quinn exclusively told Us Weekly in May. “That was kind of the whole point of the books is that you’ve got these eight separate stories, but they’re all connected.”
After some fans expressed frustration with the seasons going out of order, Quinn defended the decision.
“With books or film or television, they have different needs … to make them work well, and they have different strengths,” she explained at the time. “Certain things that work great in the book don’t necessarily work well on television. And so, one of the things about the television show, which they changed up a bit [that] was necessary, was to turn it a little bit more into an ensemble.”
Season 4 of Bridgerton is scheduled to drop January 29, 2026, on Netflix, while part 2 is set to be released on February 26, 2026.
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