Colin and Penelope’s sweet — and steamy — love story has Us in our feelings thanks to the official Bridgerton season 3 trailer.
Netflix released the official first glimpse of the upcoming season on Thursday, April 11, with Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) even more determined to find herself a suitable husband. Colin, meanwhile, looks better than ever after returning from his summer travels.
After Penelope calls out Colin for previously saying he didn’t want to marry her, the Bridgerton brother makes amends by offering to help her find love. It doesn’t take long for Penelope to meet someone new, which forces Colin to question whether his feelings for Penelope are strictly platonic after all.
“Mother, do you believe the best foundation for love is friendship?” Colin asks his mother, Lady Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell), who responds, “It is rare, but you must follow your heart.”
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The trailer also catches viewers up with last season’s couple, Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate (Simone Ashley), after they found their happily ever after. Claudia Jessie, Jessica Madsen, Golda Rosheuvel, Hugh Sachs, Adjoa Andoh, Daniel Francis, Hannah Dodd, Harriet Cains, Bessie Carter, Polly Walker, Martins Imhangbe and Emma Naomi round out the cast.
Season 3 of the hit Netflix series is based on Julia Quinn’s novel Romancing Mr. Bridgerton. Fans had the chance to see Colin and Penelope’s connection grow over the past two seasons before they became the main focus.
Before the regency show’s return, Coughlan, 37, opened up about how she and Newton, 31, developed Colin and Penelope’s onscreen chemistry.
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“Luke and I read the books at the beginning of season 1, and it was funny to us. We were like, ‘Imagine if we have to kiss and do this,’” she recalled to Entertainment Tonight in June 2023. “And then season 3 came on and we were like, ‘Oh god.’ And then it’s like, it’s my friend. I have to kiss my friend. And you can’t pretend to kiss someone, you have to really kiss them. It’s a spicy one. It’s a lot of the stuff from the books that the fans expect has made it into the show.”
Coughlan later joked that she asked for a more “PG version” for her family. “If you want to watch it with your mum and dad, go for it, [but] having seen bits,” she quipped on Australia’s Today FM in February. “But, even in season 1, I skipped bits with my mum. She was like, ‘That episode was short,’ and I was like, ‘It was a short one. It was a short one. Yeah.’”
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Newton, meanwhile, said having Coughlan as a friend in real life made his job easier.
“I feel like there’s always that question being asked of, ‘Is it easier to do the intimacy scenes or the more romantic scenes with someone who is your friend of four years or someone you just met for one day?’ I can safely say it’s easier with a friend,” he told Entertainment Tonight earlier this year. “There really is that sort of support.”
The first half of Bridgerton season 3 premieres on Netflix on Thursday, May 16. The remaining episodes drop on Thursday, June 13.
