Bridgerton: How Long Is Too Long To Wait For A New Season?

Good news: Netflix has renewed Bridgerton for seasons 5 and 6, and appeased fans with a teaser clip taken from season 4. The bad news? The latter won’t land on the streamer until 2026, meaning fans will have waited at least 18 months between season 3 part 2 and season 4. But why the huge gap? And how long a wait is too long?

Why Is The Gap Between Each Bridgerton Season So Big?

We’ve had to wait so long between each season of Bridgerton due to how lengthy the post-production process is. This means, even once filming is wrapped up – which comes with its own scheduling challenges – a whole host of technical processes have to take place, including meticulously editing each scene and translating every episode into all of the different languages the series is shown in. Throw in the added constraints of the pandemic between seasons 1 and 2 and the writer’s strike between seasons 2 and 3, and you’re looking at a pretty lengthy process.

So far, since season 1 premiered on 25 December 2020, we’ve experienced the following gaps:

• 15 months between seasons 1 and 2 (the latter launched on 25 March 2022)
• 26 months between seasons 2 and 3 (the first half of the latter launched on 16 May 2024, with part two one month later)
• At least 18 months between season 3 part two and season 4, if the latter launches in January 2026

It’s not just Bridgerton that has fallen victim to this recent trend. While The White Lotus initially managed to pump out two seasons in two years, for example, there was a gap of almost two and a half years between seasons 2 and 3. Likewise, fans of House of the Dragon – which has similar editing and CGI demands as Bridgerton – have had to suffer two-year waits between each season, and the same is true of fellow HBO series The Last of Us. Bridgerton’s fellow Netflix series Stranger Things, meanwhile, released its first two seasons in two consecutive years, before the delays set in: two years between seasons 2 and 3 stretched to three years between seasons 3 and 4, and between seasons 4 and 5.

What do these shows all have in common? An ambitious, almost cinematic quality, which requires meticulous script writing in pre-production and careful editing in post. But this is a trend across the TV industry, with fluffier series suffering a similar fate. Take Prime Video’s Jenny Han adaptation, The Summer I Turned Pretty, for example, which has maintained a core roster of fans despite a two-year gap between seasons 2 and 3. Meanwhile fans of Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia have waited two years between seasons 1 and 2, with a two and a half year gap between 2 and 3.

In contrast, Game of Thrones epitomises ‘cinematic’ television – and the creators managed to pump out a new season every June between 2011 and 2016, with the slightly later August debut in 2017, and then a two year wait for the grand finale in May 2019.

It’s difficult to pin down exactly why this is happening. Editing, scheduling and strikes all play a part. And dare we mention the elephant in the room? TV has not been the same since the pandemic. In this post-Covid world, TV companies are reluctant to take risks. Just look at the plethora of reboots saturating the industry: low-risk productions guaranteed to attract an audience. But if Disney’s recent Snow White reboot is anything to go by, this trend seems to be taking a downturn, too.

In terms of Bridgerton, the following factors have played a part in the delays:

Filming

The Bridgerton filming schedule is long, technical and jam-packed. Extras abound, and lavishly decorated sets take lots of work and time to construct and dismantle. According to Bridgerton’s showrunner Jess Brownell, it takes around eight months to film a season of Bridgerton.

On set, elaborate costumes, hair and makeup are time-demanding, commanding expertise and eating into the amount of time the actors actually have filming on set. And then the complexity of some scenes – think balls and parks with a plethora of extras – require intricate choreography and numerous takes from all angles to capture the perfect performances.

Writing & Script Development

Brownell has also noted how ‘writing [Bridgerton] takes a very long time’, with this pre-production process needing to be completely finalised before that eight-month filming process can even begin.

This statement has provoked ire in fans. Bridgerton is based on Julia Quinn’s novels, so most of the character arcs and plots have already been outlined. The series is wildly successful, and we can safely assume Netflix and Shondaland will see it through so all of the Bridgerton siblings get their time in the spotlight. So why can’t writing commence earlier?

Post-Production

And the least satisfying reason we wait so long between each season of Bridgerton? Post-production. This entails editing, adding visual effects and dubbing each episode into multiple languages. Season 3 reportedly spent 14 months in post-production. Add to that eight months of filming and we’re left with only four months between seasons 2 and 3 in which all of the writing and scheduling took place (although we can safely assume that some of this took place before season 2 was released).

How Long Is Too Long?

If Bridgerton continues with its two year breaks, it’ll take 16 years to tell the story of each of the eight siblings, taking us right up to 2036. The ‘Bridgerton effect’ consumed the UK and US in its first two seasons, inspiring special afternoon tea menus, pop-up boutiques, period dress and reviving interest in the British costume drama and our nation’s beautiful historic houses. But there’s only so long the heady buzz can last – and we think it’s safe to say it won’t last the best part of two decades.

Already, season 3 sparked much less excitement than its predecessors. And while fans are pleased with their first look at season 4, there’s a palpable outcry at that niggling 2026 release date. On Bridgerton’s official Instagram page, the comments on a teaser clip of Benedict and Sophie’s first meeting are flooded with laments like ‘I can’t wait a whole year’, ‘Bridgerton I love you so much but how does it take 2 years to make 8 episodes,’ and ‘You just drop a video like this out of the blue and announce that we will see the new season in a million years?’.

And while it should spark joy, the double announcement of seasons 5 and 6 inspired similar ire. ‘I’m going to be 40 when this show ends,’ one fan points out. ‘I’m 29.’ Another adds ‘Season 5 will probably come out in 2078’, while others describe season 4’s 2026 premiere as ‘too far away’.

If the first season of Bridgerton taught us anything, it’s that some Netflix original series really lend themselves to a good old binge watch. Landing on Christmas Day 2020, it was a perfect storm: much of the UK was still living under pandemic-related restrictions, and there’s no better time to sit down for a TV marathon than the timeless period between Christmas and New Year. In an ideal world, Netflix would have repeated the magic for every season, dropping entire seasons every twixmas. Of course, the pandemic and the writer’s strike threw a spanner in the works, but spring and summer debuts just aren’t the same – especially when you can’t quite remember exactly what went down in the previous season.

With a rinse-and-repeat format – a new social season and a new will-they-won’t-they dalliance ending with marriage – how Bridgerton will keep fans interested in the Regency romp also remains to be seen. The current strategy seems to be sporadically releasing images and teasers, while simultaneously inching the release date further away into the future.

With the show boasting more than 5 million Instagram followers, Bridgerton fans are certainly engaged in the future of the series – but Netflix should be careful not to misinterpret audience frustration as desperate enthusiasm.

WATCH

The first three seasons of Bridgerton are available to stream on Netflix. netflix.com