Cue My Chemical Romance — Hollywood is not OK with the news that Regé-Jean Page will not return to Bridgerton for a second season.
“Dear Readers, while all eyes turn to Lord Anthony Bridgerton [Jonathan Bailey]’s quest to find a Viscountess, we bid adieu to Regé-Jean Page, who so triumphantly played the Duke of Hastings,” Netflix tweeted on Friday, April 2, revealing the news in the voice of narrator Lady Whistledown. “We’ll miss Simon’s presence onscreen, but he will always be a part of the Bridgerton family. Daphne [Phoebe Dynevor] will remain a devoted wife and sister, helping her brother navigate the upcoming social season and what it has to offer – more intrigue and romance than my readers may be able to bear. Yours truly, Lady Whistledown.”
The first season followed the love story between Simon, played by Page, 31, and Daphne, played by Dynevor, 25. The characters married and had a child in the finale and previously hinted that there was more of their story to tell.
“I think that love is an evolving thing,” he told TV Guide shortly after the show’s Christmas debut. “It’s a living, breathing thing that needs tending, that needs looking after, that needs mending when it gets worn or torn. They get married very young. They still have a lot of growing to do. They have a lot to do, and I think it’ll always be fun to watch them do that together.”
However, fans will have to watch Daphne grow as a mother without Simon around. In a Friday interview with Variety, Page revealed his role was always meant to be a “one-season arc” — and that was part of the reason he was interested in it.”
“It’s going to have a beginning, middle, end — give us a year,” the actor recalled of early conversations with the show’s producers. “[I thought,] ‘That’s interesting,’ because then it felt like a limited series. I get to come in, I get to contribute my bit and then the Bridgerton family rolls on.”
The series is based on the Julia Quinn novels and will follow the same format — each season, just like each book, will focus on a new Bridgerton relative’s love story.
“One of the things that is different about this [romance] genre is that the audience knows the arc completes,” Page told Variety. “They come in knowing that, so you can tie people in emotional knots because they have that reassurance that we’re going to come out and we’re going to have the marriage and the baby.”
He added, “I have nothing but excitement for Bridgerton continuing to steam train off and conquer the globe. But there is also value in completing these arcs and sticking the landing.”
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Fans and celebrities, however, are pretty bummed they won’t be seeing the For the People alum next season. Scroll through the gallery below for some of the best star reactions:
