Will the diamond of the season be back for more? Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen has big ideas for keeping fans of the Netflix series happy.
The Shonda Rhimes-produced show hit the streaming platform on Christmas Day and viewers were quickly wrapped up in the drama’s dreamy story lines. Based on author Julia Quinn‘s novels of the same name, the series follows Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and her siblings as they attempt to find love within the strict guidelines of Regency-era society. Quinn wrote eight books — one centered on each Bridgerton sibling — leaving Van Dusen and his team with plenty of material for follow-up seasons.
“I feel like the first season was primarily about Daphne and her love story with Simon [played by Regé-Jean Page],” the producer explained during a recent interview with Collider. “But this being a family of eight children and there being eight books, I would love to be able to focus and really tell stories and love stories for all the Bridgerton siblings. For each character, for sure.”
Van Dusen added that in an ideal scenario, there would be eight total seasons of the romantic series. “I think we’ve done some work in season 1 to set up other characters [for more]. … I think it’s a deep well of story for us to explore,” he said.
While fans were enamored with the entire ensemble of characters, Daphne and Simon’s love story is one for the ages. Dynevor, 25, and Page, 31, had such electrifying chemistry on-screen that many viewers began to wonder if sparks were flying between them in the real world too. When asked about rumors of a romance with his costar, Page kept his cool.
“I think that everything you need to know is on camera,” he told Access Hollywood on Saturday, January 9, acknowledging how lucky he and Dynevor were to have “the beautiful scripts” that gave them “more than enough” inspiration.
The duo worked closely with an intimacy coordinator while filming some of Bridgerton‘s steamy scenes, a process that Dynevor previously called “safe and fun.” Van Dusen, for his part, doesn’t think Bridgerton would have been possible without the expert’s guidance.
“She worked closely with myself and with our director, and super closely with our cast,” he told Collider. “All of the intimate scenes were heavily choreographed and approached much like an action sequence would be approached. … It really was about making our actors comfortable and really having them be the ones who were driving the action in those scenes of intimacy. We wanted them to be able to do what they wanted to do and go as far as they wanted to go.”
