It’s finally here! The Bridgerton Season 3 trailer has officially arrived, bringing our first lengthy preview of Colin (Luke Newton) and Penelope’s (Nicola Coughlan) love story. The trailer has it all: betrayals, dancing, shirtlessness, held gazes, and biting quips.
Come with us, gentle reader, and let us over-analyze the biggest reveals in the trailer.
When Kanthony Is Happy, We’re Happy
Since Regé-Jean Page elected not to return for Season 2, Season 3 will give us our first post-HEA couple. Judging by the first glimpses we’ve gotten, Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate (Simone Ashley) are the picture of wedded bliss. The Bridgerton Season 3 trailer features a flirtatious scene of the Viscount and Viscountess in Anthony’s office. Judging by their smiles and the intensity of their smooch up against his desk, it seems like wedded life is treating our Lord and Lady Bridgerton very well.
And honestly? We deserve it as much as they do.
Eloise’s New Friend Is WHO?
While it was definitely theorized in many fan circles, it doesn’t hurt any less. The Bridgerton Season 3 trailer identifies Eloise’s (Claudia Jessie) much-teased “unexpected friend” as Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen). Combined with Eloise’s bitter jab to Colin that she hopes Penelope “is not seeking a husband in you,” it’s clear that the ex-BFFs’ rift is bigger than ever.
It’s painful to see Eloise befriending the ton’s biggest bully. Given Cressida’s role in Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, we fear things might get uglier before they get better. At the same time, it’s an indication of just how adrift Eloise is without her friendship with Pen. We hope they can own up to their respective mistakes and reconcile soon!
John Stirling, Where Are You?
We get glimpses of Francesca’s (Hannah Dodd) debut throughout the Bridgerton Season 3 trailer. She curtsies to the Queen, dances at a ball, and gazes thoughtfully up at a portrait of her parents. If the show follows the same timeline as the books, Francesca should be meeting her first husband, John Stirling, this season. And yet, the character is conspicuously missing from the new cast list.
Since Francesca clearly plays a bigger role this season, we have to assume John is simply being kept under wraps. Is he someone we haven’t met yet? Or is he in the trailer and we don’t even know it?
New Faces and New Love Interests
Francesca isn’t the only one finding potential love in the Bridgerton Season 3 trailer. Penelope’s well-publicized suitor, Lord Debling (Sam Phillips), arrives on the scene. He’s instantly charming, flirts with Penelope, and is apparently “eager to take a wife this season,” according to Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh). We’re all rooting for our Polin HEA, but it’s good to see Penelope getting the attention she deserves!
One storyline in the Queen Charlotte spin-off revealed that widowed Violet (Ruth Gemmell) might finally be ready for love again. In the trailer, she shares a brief moment with Marcus Anderson (Daniel Francis), a new character. He is described in the cast announcement as “a charismatic presence who lights up any room he enters, attracting the notice of certain matriarchs in the town — and the ire of others.” Might her garden be back in bloom this season?
Polin in Bloom
And now, finally, for what we’ve all been waiting for. Colin and Penelope’s relationship takes some serious twists and turns this season. In a major departure from the book, their plot has a more classic rom-com premise. When Penelope realizes she needs to get married and out of her family home, Colin—looking to repair their friendship after inadvertently insulting her last season—offers to help her.
We see both their glow-ups (her in beautiful green gowns, him shirtless and being teased by his brothers). More importantly, we see the former ease between them turned awkward and stifled. Every gaze and every touch—including multiple hand touches, be still my heart!—are more charged than before. Hazy shots of them both lying in bed, including one with a candle flame in the foreground, highlight the uncertainty of both their emotions. In the final moments of the Bridgerton Season 3 trailer, they stride towards each other in a firelit garden. It’s not clear if it’s a real scene or a dream, but the breathless romance is so good.
Which moments in the trailer had you rewinding immediately? Watch the Bridgerton Season 3 trailer again (and again) below, before Bridgerton Season 3 arrives this summer. Part One arrives on May 16, and Part Two debuts on June 13.