Luke Thompson isn’t saying bye to Benedict Bridgerton. Although his character’s love story culminated with an engagement to Sophie Gun, played by Yerin Ha, in Part 2, the Bridgerton star doubts the Season 4 finale will be the last fans see of Benedict.
“I doubt it. I doubt it. He’s part of the family, so I’m sure he’ll still be around as well as, you know, making way for the new siblings, but, yeah, of course, of course,” Thompson told Parade in an exclusive interview. “He’s part of the family.”
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While Phoebe Dynevor (Daphne Bridgerton) left the show after Season 2, Luke Newton (Colin Bridgerton) and Jonathan Bailey (Anthony Bridgerton) have continued to appear as their characters, despite their respective stories having already been told.
“I actually love those scenes with Johnny [Bailey] in Part 2,” Thompson said. “I think they’re really interesting scenes because there’s that history. There’s that sort of four season history behind it. So it’s always very interesting to bring back people and have those relationships, because they’ve got such depth to them, because we’ve been doing them for five, six years.”
Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2025
After three seasons of inhabiting Benedict and watching siblings find love, the focus shifted to Thompson’s character in Season 4. Now that it’s over, the West End actor is a “little bit emotional” to have Benedict’s story behind him. “Quite a big chunk” of his professional career, Thompson pointed out, had “sort of like been leading up to in some way this moment.”
“It is quite strange being [on] the other side of it,” he confessed.
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Rather than feeling relieved to have it all done, the Bridgerton star admitted, “I think I’m, yes, a little bit emotional. A little bit like, ‘Oh, that was that. [Laughs] That’s what that was.’ It’s so difficult to comprehend, maybe because I’ve spent so long on the one side of it.”
Days after Season 4 premiered, it still hadn’t fully sunk in for Thompson that he was already on the other side. “I sort of feel like when you are at the center of something like that, it’s a bit of a rollercoaster,” he said, also comparing it to going down a slide.
“You sort of like end up at the other end of it and you’re like, ‘Oh, that was it.’ It just goes sort of like in a flash. In a way, when I think back to the nine months filming, like it was both nine months, but it also felt like a few weeks in my head,” Thompson shared. “You’re so engaged for nine months, time just flies away from me.”
Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2025
As for what lies ahead for his character, that’s up to the writers. “We shall see,” he said.
But, when it comes to the Netflix series taking creative liberties, like gender-swapping Michael Stirling, Thompson believes the show, inspired byJulia Quinn‘s novels, has “done a wonderful job of absolutely meeting the fandom.”
“I think authenticity or accuracy in any form, I’m always quite suspicious of. I’m suspicious of it when people, to be honest, whine about the idea that Bridgerton isn’t historically accurate because I sort of think that’s not the point,” Thompson said. “It’s never been the point. It’s a drama. It’s not a history lesson.”
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And as Thompson noted, “that is nothing new,” citing William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream as an example. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art alum said, “[A] Midsummer Night’s Dream is set in ancient Greece, but it’s all about Elizabethan England. Shakespeare didn’t care about that… It’s just a mishmash of all sorts of things. So I just think a lot of art isn’t that interested in it being accurate. And I believe kind of the same with the books.”
Ward Ivan Rafik/Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
Thompson continued, “I think the books are the books and the series is the series. And I think the series has done a wonderful job of absolutely meeting the fandom in terms of like what they love about the books, but also surprising them, and also bringing that material into our century. Not just our century, but our decade. In terms of like that it reflects the diversity of experiences out there. I’m very suspicious of the word authenticity, I think, generally.”
Thompson takes pride in the Netflix series, which was renewed in 2025 for a fifth and sixth season. “It’s been a huge part of my career,” he said. “I’m very, very proud of the show.”
It’s also a show – yes, known for its sex scenes – that Thompson believes has a “real purity about it.” He explained, “It doesn’t apologize for any of it. Like even the sex is just overt and again, it feels like part of the story. It doesn’t feel like sort of chucked in, and it doesn’t feel like an attempt to be, I don’t know, salacious or something.”
“It’s got a purity about it in terms of its intent,” Thompson added. “It’s like this is what the story is, this is what we want to do, this is what we want to give people. And we sort of don’t care if people think this or people think that.”
Part 1 and Part 2 of Bridgerton Season 4 are now streaming on Netflix.
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