‘Bridgerton’ Season 5: The Latest News on the Lead, Premiere Date & More

Bridgerton‘s fourth season has told Benedict and Sophie’s love story in full, but the Regency romance is far from over. The Shondaland hit, based on Julia Quinn’s novels, has already been renewed for a fifth season — as well as a sixth! Naturally, Bridgerton fans are abuzz over who will be the next lead of the Netflix series.

While a premiere date and trailer for Bridgerton Season 5 may be a ways off, production is kicking off sooner rather than later. Showrunner Jess Brownell also recently offered some exciting information about who could lead the next chapter of the series as it continues to track Quinn’s books. Below, we’re breaking down everything we know about Season 5 so far, and we will continue to update information as additional announcements are made. (Warning: Spoilers for Bridgerton Season 4 ahead.)

When will Bridgerton Season 5 premiere?

Bridgerton Season 5 doesn’t have a premiere date, but if it were to follow the pattern of past releases, we could speculate that it would debut in 2028, as there’s been roughly a two-year wait between each chapter of the series.

At a BFI event in February 2026, Brownell revealed that the Bridgerton crew was “very nearly about to start” production on Season 5. The showrunner has acknowledged the long wait times between seasons in the past.

“We are working to try and put the seasons out more quickly, but they do take eight months to film, and then they have to be edited, and then they have to be dubbed into every language,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “And the writing takes a very long time as well, so we’re kind of on a two-year pace, we’re trying to speed up, but somewhere in that range.”

Who will be the leads of Bridgerton Season 5?

If Bridgerton carries on its fifth season chronologically from Quinn’s books, it could mean that Eloise (Claudia Jessie), the fifth-eldest Bridgerton sibling, could take center stage for her romance. As viewers will recall, Season 3 shook up the order of things by putting Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin (Luke Newton) in the leading roles, deviating from Quinn’s book order. But if the series should continue on in the proper order, Eloise should be next. Only time will tell for certain, though, as we await official word. If Season 5 deviates from the book order like Season 3 did, it’s possible that Francesca (Hannah Dodd) could step up to the plate as Season 5’s lead.

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If Eloise does find herself as Season 5’s lead, though, Sir Phillip Crane (Chris Fulton) would be her match as he is in the books. Viewers met Sir Phillip Crane in Season 1 as the brother of George Crane, the late love of Marina Thompson (Ruby Barker), and father of her children, Oliver and Amanda. He married Marina to protect her in society, but despite their arrangement, it seemed the duo’s relationship was primarily platonic when Phillip and Marina reappeared for a Season 2 episode.

Despite fan theories about changing Eloise’s romantic endgame, Brownell confirmed to Swooon that Eloise and Phillip would end up together. “I think we are interested in honoring the love interest from Eloise’s book. I can dispel, she’s not ending up with Theo. She’s ending up with the love interest from her book,” she said.

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While Brownell seemed to confirm that Eloise will be a lead for the series on the red carpet of the Bridgerton Season 4 premiere, in an interview with Deadline, she hinted that Francesca could also be a lead. Brownell wore pocket squares with the initials E and F at the premiere, and told the outlet, “Both characters with the initials on my pocket squares will get seasons in 5 in 6. In what order? I can’t say.” So it’s possible Season 5 could carry on with the suspected lead of Eloise, but also deviate by tackling Francesca’s story next. Either way, fans should gear up for back-to-back Bridgerton women leads.

Who will return for Bridgerton Season 5?

You can expect the majority of the Bridgerton family to return in Season 5, including Eloise, Francesca, Violet (Ruth Gemmell), Hyacinth (Florence Hunt), and Gregory (Will Tilston). Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley have made brief appearances as Anthony and Kate since their season, so it’s likely they’ll pop up again if their schedules permit. Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha‘s season just wrapped, but we’re confident the Season 4 couple will be in Season 5.

Liam Daniel / Netflix

Given the new Lady Whistledown situation, Penelope and Colin are expected to return. In Season 4, Penelope retired as Lady Whistledown, but another person(s) took up the pen. Brownell also told Swooon about her Season 5 plans for Polin. “I think we’re really excited to see the way their relationship develops as both being novelists,” she said. “But I think chiefly what will be interesting is seeing the way that they each are there for their various siblings.”

Depending on the lead of Season 5, that would determine how much we’d see of Fulton’s Sir Phillip and Baduza’s Michaela. A season of Bridgerton wouldn’t be complete without Golda Rosheuvel‘s Queen Charlotte and Adjoa Andoh‘s Lady Danbury. With Alice Mondrich (Emma Naomi) as the Queen’s new lady-in-waiting, she’ll likely be joining the fun in Season 5 alongside her husband, Will (Martins Imhangbe).

Which book is Bridgerton Season 5 based on?

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Again, should Bridgerton Season 5 follow the order previously determined by the books, Eloise’s story is told in Quinn’s novel To Sir Phillip, With Love. In the book, Sir Phillip and Eloise begin writing letters to one another after the death of Marina. Ultimately, he proposes to her through those letters, believing she’d be well-suited to care for his children, unaware that he’d quickly fall for her. Meanwhile, when Eloise arrives at Sir Phillip’s estate, he isn’t quite the man she anticipated. In the book, she’s driven to pursue Sir Phillip’s proposal in part by the loneliness she feels after her best friend Penelope marries her brother, Colin.

If Season 5 took the Francesca route, the show would explore her love story from When He Was Wicked. The show already started tapping into Francesca’s book by introducing Michaela (in a gender-swap twist) and incorporating John’s death from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm in Season 4. Francesca’s season would dive into her love story with Michaela and how they both move forward after such a tragic loss.

Bridgerton, Season 5, TBA, Netflix