Bridgerton Showrunner Addresses Gender-Swapping Eloise’s Love Interest

With Francesca’s love interest being gender-swapped on Bridgerton, could fans expect the same for her sister Eloise?

After Bridgerton’s third season concluded on Thursday, June 13, showrunner Jess Brownell was asked about fan speculation into Eloise’s (Claudia Jessie) sexuality and whether the concept of gender-swapping love interests could apply to her, as well.

“We’ve talked about Eloise in the room a lot about the fact that to a lot of people, she does read as queer, and I totally understand why,” Brownell told TVLine. “But we felt it’s really important to hold space in this show where everyone is obsessed with romance for there to be a character — specifically a female character — for whom that is not the priority.”

Brownell didn’t rule out potentially shaking up Eloise’s story but for now the intent is not that she “just needs to meet someone of the right gender.” Instead, Bridgerton will explore how Eloise is “genuinely more interested in cerebral pursuits” at this point in time.

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In a separate interview, Brownell was once again asked about some viewers advocating for Eloise to end up with a woman. (Based on Julia Quinn‘s book series, Eloise’s love interest in To Sir Phillip, With Love is meant to be Phillip, who is played by Chris Fulton.)

“I absolutely understand why people have thought that about Eloise,” Brownell explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “I wanted to hold space for that because not every young woman is solely interested in romance. That’s not to say that Eloise won’t open up to love in the future, but for now, that’s I think, where she’s at.”

Bridgerton previously surprised book fans by switching the order of the series — having Colin (Luke Newton) go before Benedict (Luke Thompson). The changes just kept coming during the season 3 finale when the show confirmed that Benedict is a part of the LGBTQIA+ community when he had a threesome with a woman and a man.

Meanwhile, Francesca (Hannah Dodd) met her now-husband John’s (Victor Alli) cousin Michaela (Masali Baduza) at the end of the series. The book about Francesca’s romance — When He Was Wicked — actually followed her relationship with John’s cousin Michael.

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Bridgerton surprised book fans by changing Francesca’s future love interest from Michael to Michaela, but the show’s creative team is excited about the meaningful swap. Season 3 offered Francesca (Hannah Dodd) a much larger role — following a recasting — where viewers watched her fall in love with John (Victor Alli). Francesca and John ended […]

“When we started talking about queer representation on the show, we started with a discussion that this is a show about happily-ever-afters, and that we’re not interested in queer trauma — that we really want to see queer joy,” Brownell told Variety earlier this month. “And if we’re going to tell a queer story, we would like to find a way for there to be a happily ever after.”

Brownell acknowledged the potential obstacles for a same-sex couple considering the Regency era setting on the show, adding, “So we have done a lot of research to figure out how we can achieve that within the confines of our world. And after people see the next couple of seasons, I’ll be able to talk about that more.”

After some book fans expressed their frustration at not seeing the novels adapted exactly the way they’re written on the page, Brownell revealed she got Quinn’s approval before making the changes.

“The fact of the matter is, the fan base is not a monolith, and you’re never going to please every single side of the fan base,” Brownell explained to Teen Vogue on Thursday. “In, for example, deciding to tell a queer story with Francesca, I spoke with Julia Quinn, I got her blessing.”

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Brownell and Quinn both expected backlash to the big narrative swing.

“We talked about the fact that with almost any single book, there would be a side of the fandom that would be disheartened to see their favorite characters changed,” Brownell noted. “I don’t think that there is any book that wouldn’t happen with, so for me, again, it came back to story, and it came back to character. Because Francesca’s book resonated [with me] in the way that it did, it felt like a natural adaptation.”

Bridgerton is currently streaming on Netflix.