It’s official: Bridgerton Season 5 will chart the second chance romance between the widowed Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd) and her late husband’s cousin, Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza). Season 4 already started tapping into the beginning stages of Francesca and Michaela’s journey from Julia Quinn’s When He Was Wicked, with John’s (Victor Alli) death and Michaela skipping town in the aftermath. (Spoilers for Julia Quinn’s When He Was Wicked ahead.)
Beyond swapping Michaela’s gender and removing Francesca’s miscarriage storyline, the Netflix series has largely followed Quinn’s book so far — which makes us wonder just how many scenes will make it into the adaptation. Shortly ahead of Season 4’s premiere, when they still had yet to be confirmed as the next leads, Swooon spoke with Dodd and Baduza about the When He Was Wicked moments they were hoping to bring to the screen.