Bridgerton‘s Hannah Dodd made a rare comment about Francesca and Michaela’s highly-anticipated romance following that gender swap twist.
Before the show’s premiere, Dodd, 30, teased where Francesca and Michaela (Masali Baduza) stand, telling Swooon on Wednesday, January 14, “I think that moment in the ball, she doesn’t really know what it is. I think it’s just a different feeling.”
Francesca isn’t yet in the headspace to decipher her feelings for Michaela.
“She’s happily married, and they’ve gone off to Scotland together, and now they’re back in London, and I think she’s just in a place where she’s really trying to invest time into her relationship with John,” Dodd noted. “I think people forget that they’ve barely spent any time together in these relationships in those days, they haven’t spent that much time together, so now they’re living together, they’ve got a house together, she’s the head of a household, so it’s a whole new life for Francesca.”
Season 3 of the hit Netflix series expanded on Francesca’s love story by having her meet her now-husband, John (Victor Alli), during her debut into society. By the end of part two, Francesca and John were making plans to move to his native Scotland with his cousin Michaela. The book about Francesca’s romance, however, actually followed her relationship with John’s cousin Michael, which upset certain readers.
Showrunner Jess Brownell has since revealed that it was always the plan to explore Francesca’s sexuality.
“The reveal of Michaela vs. Michael — from the books — is something that I’ve been pitching from season 1 of the show,” Brownell revealed to Teen Vogue in June 2024. “My approach to telling a queer story on Bridgerton has been to look to the books for thematic cues. I didn’t want to just insert a queer character for queer character’s sake.”
Brownell clarified that she received support from Julia Quinn — who wrote the Bridgerton novels — before making it official.
“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,” she continued at the time. “In, for example, deciding to tell a queer story with Francesca, I spoke with Julia Quinn, I got her blessing.”
Brownell added: “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. 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.”
Quinn issued her own statement after certain book fans got frustrated with how her When He Was Wicked novel would be adapted.
“I’m confident now that when Francesca has her Bridgerton season, it will be the most emotional and heart-wrenching story of the show, just like When He Was Wicked has always been the true tear-jerker of the Bridgerton book series,” she wrote via Instagram in June 2025. “Honestly, it may pack even more of a punch, since John is getting a lot more time on the screen than he ever did on the page, and I think it’s fair to say we’ve all fallen a little bit in love with him.”
It remains to be seen which season will be focused on Francesca and Michaela — with season 4 focused on Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie (Yerin Ha).
Season 4 of Bridgerton is scheduled to drop January 29 on Netflix, while part 2 is set to be released on February 26.
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