Netflix and Shondaland have announced that Regé-Jean Page's breakout character, the Duke of Hastings, will not reappear on the show's second season.
“Dear Readers, while all eyes turn to Lord Anthony Bridgerton’s quest to find a Viscountess, we bid adieu to Regé-Jean Page, who so triumphantly played the Duke of Hastings,” an announcement, written as Lady Whistledown (the show's unseen narrator), began.
“We’ll miss Simon’s presence onscreen, but he will always be a part of the Bridgerton family,” it continued. “Daphne 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.”
Speaking to Variety, Page said, “It’s a one-season arc. It’s going to have a beginning, middle, end – give us a year. [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.”
As Variety points out, fans of the Julia Quinn novels, on which the show is based, won't be surprised by this development, as the Duke of Hastings' character arc is meant to pay out in the first book, The Duke and I. The show’s second season, like the anthology, will focus on another Bridgerton sibling’s story.
“One of the things that is different about this [romance] genre is that the audience knows the arc completes,” he said. “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.
“I have nothing but excitement for Bridgerton continuing to steam train off and conquer the globe,” he continued. “But there is also value in completing these arcs and sticking the landing.”
