The latest season of everyone's favourite period drama hit Netflix last week (29 January), and fans have taken no time rushing to social media to share their verdicts.
The first four episodes of the fourth season have been rattled through in no time at all, with the second part of the long-awaited series dropping on the streamer later this month (29 February).
Now, this season focuses on Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and a mysterious woman, known only as the Lady in Silver, who gets caught up in a love affair after an intense encounter at the masquerade ball.
Benedict makes it his mission to uncover the young lady’s hidden identity, with viewers soon finding out that she is actually a resourceful maid named Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha), working for the formidable lady of the house, Araminta Gun (Katie Leung, known for playing Cho Chang in the Harry Potter films).
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This came as somewhat of a surprise for some Bridgerton fans, given that season three heavily explored his relationships with both men and women.
One X user declared: "Benedict Bridgerton should be gay. I will take no arguments, and if he does nothing gay this season, I'm sending Netflix a strongly worded email."
"THEY SHOULD MAKE BENEDICT GAY IN BRIDGERTON SEASON 4 WHAT THE F**K," seethed a second.
Another questioned: "Is there any gay sh*t going on in the new Bridgerton season? I was hoping Benedict had a queer story."
And a final X user fumed: "They really didn’t want to let Benedict be gay, huh?"
Other fans, however, didn't get the outrage with one Reddit user wondering: "Why are some people upset that Benedict will probably be with a woman?
"Benedict was created as a bisexual or pansexual character. But now I've seen on several platforms that people are upset that he'll probably end up with a woman. Why are people angry that someone who is attracted to both men and women actually ends up with a woman?
"From what I've seen, they're not even upset that he's getting into a committed relationship, but rather that it's a relationship with a woman."
And a second echoed: "I personally love it! I love bi male representation, and I like that he is shown falling in love with a woman. Too many people think bi men are just gay."
Speaking in a new interview with Variety published last week (29 January), showrunner Jess Brownwell directly addressed Benedict's bisexuality and how the show has navigated his character ending up with a woman.
"It’s really important that just because someone might end up in a heterosexual-presenting relationship, that does not negate their queerness," Brownwell explained.
"I think Benedict’s queerness will always be a piece of his identity. And when we were talking about representation, I don’t think there’s a lot of representation that I’ve seen of bisexual men."
Like many viewers at home, she went on to outline a 'really harmful and untrue stereotype that bisexual men are actually just gay men'.
"More often, we see bisexual men ending up in media in homosexual-presenting relationships. And it felt fresh and important to see a bisexual man ending up in a heterosexual-presenting relationship and still owning the fact that he is still queer," Brownwell concluded.
Thompson himself even commented on the discourse, telling Bustle back in 2024 that the best way to describe the Bridgerton brothers' sexuality is pansexual.
"Male sexuality, particularly, can feel boxy in the way that it’s explored. Let’s be clear, it was an extremely repressive period. By our modern terms, the closest [descriptor] would be something along the lines of pansexuality — being attracted to the way that someone thinks and feels, regardless of gender," he said.
"That’s a word that could be used. But what’s refreshing about it, certainly in the way that it’s being discovered at the moment, is that there is a sense of label-lessness about it."
Bridgerton is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Topics: Bridgerton, TV And Film, Netflix, Celebrity, LGBTQ, Social Media
Rhiannon Ingle