The second season of Netflix’s popular series Bridgerton has got everyone talking about it. Bridgerton Season 2 has got tremendous viewership and made it one of the most watched shows on the streamer. Now, Simone Ashley who plays Kate Sharma in the second season confirmed to a leading portal that she and Jonathan Bailey who plays Anthony Bridgerton will return for Season 3 of the show.
Simone shared the news at a dinner celebrating South Asian culture hosted by Netflix in Los Angeles recently. The dinner was attended by other stars including Kal Penn, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Poorna Jagannathan, Richa Moorjani, Sujata Day, Lilly Singh, Sophia Ali, and Anurima Bhargava. Confirming her return to the franchise, Simone said, “We’re going to be back! Kate and Anthony are just getting started.”
She further said, “We have the amazing Jess Brownell who is taking the lead as showrunner in Season 3. In Season 2, there was a lot of push and pull between Kate and Anthony, there were complications with the family, and then they find each other towards the end. I think everything is just starting. I’d like to see Kate just let go a bit more and play more in Season 3 and kind of swim in that circle of love together. I think they both deserve it.”
She also revealed that her character, the Viscountess will take her own place in the show and said, “She’s in charge of the household now and she’s got big boots to put on. I think she can do it,” she said excitedly. “I want to keep that softness and vulnerability to Kate, for sure, and she can share that with Anthony. I’m just excited for her to have a home and to have a family. I’m excited to see her grow. I think I’d like to see Kate being much braver and less headstrong and more heart strong.”
Simone also said that Bridgerton 2 not only had a love story between a man and a woman but a lot of family dynamics including the love between two sisters and called it a multi-layered story that is much more that about a story of a man coming between two women. It may seem that on the surface Kate and her sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran) are competing for Antony, Simonde said, “It’s more like three love stories are going on at once. It’s not that at all. It’s very evident that Kate is just trying to protect her sister and if anything, she’s actually being dishonest with herself, therefore being dishonest with her family. She’s not afraid to own the fact that she has feelings about disappointing her family, to have that confrontation to let her family down because she’s put them first her whole life. I think a lot of women can relate to that. And I think it’s so brave of her to actually let that go and eventually after the mistake she makes to come forward. It was also very brave of her sister Edwina to come back together and set each other free.”
Simone also spoke about her Sharma family who are immigrants to London from India and must find a place of their own in the Regency era, including finding a love match for themselves. Talking about her family on the show, Simone said, “It’s much different for them than it is for the Bridgertons and the other families that we meet in this world. It’s an act of survival, and it goes beyond finding a love match. How am I going to protect and take care of my family, for them to live for them to eat, to be taken care of, and have a roof over their head? That’s the heartbeat I kept throughout the whole series, how important Kate’s family is to her. This wasn’t about who could get the Viscount, it’s so much deeper than that. Kate’s dedication and love for her sister is especially profound. Kate suffered a lot of loss when she was younger which she didn’t deal with because she had to sacrifice her own life to uplift Edwina’s, to give her a chance because she adores her. She doesn’t want her to go through the same things that she did.”
Both the seasons of Bridgerton are streaming on Netflix.
(Source: Deadline)
