Bridgerton EP on That Other Season 2 Departure: It Was ‘Beyond Our Control’
Rege-Jean Page’s Duke will not be the only major Bridgerton player MIA in Season 2.
Lady Violet’s sixth oldest child, Francesca — who remained off screen in Season 1 until the final episode — was intended to have a larger role in Season 2 of the Netflix smash, which drops Friday.
However, as EP and showrunner Chris Van Dusen explains, Ruby Stokes, the actress who plays Francesca, had to leave after shooting just three episodes due to a prior commitment to another Netflix series, the upcoming detective thriller Lockwood & Co.
“I love Francesca, but we lost her midway through Season 2,” Van Dusen tells TVLine. “After exhausting all other options, she unfortunately had to come out due to reasons beyond our control. Perhaps Season 3 will be the charm.”
Bridgerton has been renewed through Season 4, but if the chronology of Julia Quinn’s novels is any indication, Francesca will not take center stage until the sixth book titled, When He Was Wicked.
The literary version of Francesca is described as “contained.” There are glimmers of something more in Season 2, for instance, when she mildly chides her older sister Eloise for not jumping at the chance to hold their nephew August. In another scene, she mirthfully joins her siblings and mother to spy on a pre-debut Eloise. By the time the entire Bridgerton brood dances together in Episode 7, Francesca is noticeably absent and it is never explained why.
Are you disappointed that Francesca will be mostly MIA from the Ton yet again? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
Well,that’s a pretty big pothole.
They should just recast at this point. I don’t really remember her at all in season 1 and if she’d only shot a few scenes for season 2, surely they could have reshot with another actress.
To be fair, she was hardly in the books as well until her story, then she’s not seen again after that.
If I remember right, and it’s been awhile since I’ve read them, books 4-5-6 overlap in the timeline. The second part of book 4 takes place at the same time as the first part of book 5, and book 6 is taking place at the same time as 4-5 but up in Scotland rather than London.
I’m wondering if after Benedict’s story that they’re going to wind up interweaving 4-5-6 over a couple of seasons. To me, that’ll be the best way to handle it rather than doing all of book 4, which has an even bigger character disappearing halfway through for reasons you find out in the next book, then backtracking to book 5 then backtracking again to book 6.
I’m trying NOT to give book spoilers for the nonbook readers, so forgive me being vague. Yes, books 4-5-6, do overlap a lot. However, Francesca’s story starts between Anthony and Benedicts, so unless they plan to start her story during season 3 instead of this season, we’ll be doing flashbacks. If that’s the case, they need to simply recast her. They can probably get away without needing her this season, but not next as they’ll need to do some foundation laying.
I feel like, given the way the book is set up, flashbacks would be perfect or have that part of her story be the secondary plot of season 3, as you said. The actress will need to make a decision by then.
Trying to be vague as well, but there is clearly a time jump between books 3 and 4, so if they do go the strict flashback route, it’s a super easy recast.
“A few scenes” appears to have been
three full episodes, which would mean weeks or months of reshoots in a Covid climate… not really viable.
I wonder if she’ll be recasted. I’m excitedly waiting for her story because her story is one of my favorite of all..
For those that read the books, without spoiling anything. Is there an LGBTQ book/season based on one of the brothers? I recall season 1 hinted at that one brother.
No, in the books there isn’t.
No there isn’t. A lot of people see “hints” that Benedict and/or Eloise are gay/asexual, but that’s not anywhere in the books. In my (humble) opinion, the show did try some poorly done “gay baiting” with Benedict and people are seeing what they want to see with Eloise. (Just because she doesn’t want to get married and raise kids does not automatically make her asexual/lesbian).
Including LBGTQIA stories into movies/shows has become the norm so I won’t be surprised if the show writers go down that road with one of the siblings. I hope they still to the books though.
I’m trying really hard not to fault the showrunners for this, since production on Season 2 had to shut down multiple times due to Covid. The shutdowns and startups are probably what pushed the actress’s two shows into conflicting shooting schedules.
I’m really excited for Lockwood and Co, so I’m not mad about it.
She was in a total of 1 episode they could recast… zero issues with that. Also, wonder how this is more popular than The Witcher?!?
So one has a followable plot and the other just does not (at least the three episodes I tried to watch)
Francesca was never a big part of the other books, the forgotten Bridgerton.
Out of all the siblings Francesca is definitely the one who appears the least in the books. Daphne shows up at least once in every book, and I think Anthony had the second most appearances, possibly followed by Colin. If I’m remembering correctly, we also don’t really see Francesca again after her book.
In the larger than life entertainment business, these things are sometimes unavoidable… It is us commoners who want everything to remain the same and families to stay together… Here’s to the Bridgerton family that will always include the Duke and Francesca. We will forever miss them.
“Perhaps Season 3 will be the charm” makes it sound like she’s not…actually leaving? It sounds like she just couldn’t make the bulk of the shoot of season 2 due to scheduling conflicts, but if scheduling for s3 allows, she’ll be there. I hope so, as both Lockwood and Bridgerton are two of my favorite book series and I enjoy Ruby as an actress.
I’m just so disheartened by the fact that we can’t see Duke anymore in season 2. Its not going to be same anymore:'(
Also if anyone wants an access to this check ‘Streaming Digitally’, just watched Amsterdam by streaming through it. Satisfied!
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If she was going to be that important to season 2, why wouldn’t they have gotten her under contract before she went off and signed onto Lockwood & Co.?
No because in the books Francesca is married and lives with her husband in another country until he dies.
Iam just so Happy to see these books come to life and the way they are re Imagined .love love it.
Will miss the Duke as well as Francesca…bummer
I am very sorry that Rege’ Jean will not be returning. I don’t think I will be watching this series anymore but none of the other characters were interesting enough to follow.
Without the Duke (Rage’ Jean) and Daphne, i will not watch Bridgerton again. Like you, i find none of the other characters interesting enough to follow.
As I understand this series there will be no story line for Benedict in season 3. His book was my favorite then Colin etc.Not very pleased with this show, I probably will stop watching if they delete whole books from this series. Francesca’s story is more mature as I remember it. There are so many better regency authors to make into shows. Imagine deleting whole story lines from the Outlander series or the GOT series.
In my opinion, the Duke wasn’t missed at all. The season 2 was sooo steamy and romantic.Anthony and Kate were absolutely electric any time they occupied the same space.🔥🔥
Total rubbish.
Season One: the Duke was a complete Mills and Boon wooden character, and the childhood trauma resulting in him (secretly) not wanting kids, and avoiding sex, a contrived, unrealistic plot.
Season Two: Believable and realistic and properly romantic.
The whole series is fun, takes my mind off everything worrisome, which right now is pretty much everything. I hope to see Jean-Renè in something spectacular one day, like James Bond, etc. I do like Daphne very much but Kate was wonderful. too. Why is this more popular than The Witcher right now, someone asks. I am personally sick of supernatural gibberish, for good or bad. And sick of women being treated like witches in tv, film, lit and certain State Capitols and by certain State Legislatures and by one particular Supreme Court Justuce.
*Justice*
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