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Bridgerton fans looking for more of the Duke in Season 2 won’t be pleased with Lady Whistledown’s latest announcement. Regé-Jean Page, who plays Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, in Season 1 of the Netflix hit, will not reprise his role for the new season, Netflix and Shondaland confirmed today, as reported by Variety.
The announcement, which was formatted as a letter from the show’s mysterious gossip, Lady Whistledown, begins, “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.
“We’ll miss Simon’s presence onscreen, but he will always be a part of the Bridgerton family,” it continues. “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.”
The second season of Bridgerton is set to pivot away from Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and focus on her brother, Anthony (Jonathan Bailey), as he begins his own search for love. While Page won’t be featured on screen, Dynevor is set to return.
Page told Variety that he took the role of The Duke knowing it would be a one-season gig. “It’s going to have a beginning, middle, end – give us a year,” he said, referring to early conversations he had with Shondaland, the production company behind the series. “[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.”
He added, “One of the things that is different about this [romance] genre is that the audience knows the arc completes. 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. But there is also value in completing these arcs and sticking the landing.”
While Page is leaving Regency era London behind, he’s got plenty of future roles to keep him busy. Next up, the actor is set to star in another Netflix project next, joining Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in the Russo brothers’ The Gray Man. Fans can also look forward to seeing him in the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons film.
