Queer Storylines a 'Priority' for Upcoming Third Season of 'Bridgerton,' Showrunner Says

Out actor Jonathan Bailey stars as heterosexual patriarch Anthony Bailey Source: Netflix

Jess Brownell, the showrunner for the Netflix series "Bridgerton," says that queer storylines will be a "priority" in the show's upcoming third season, which premieres May 16, Us Magazine reported.

"This is a show about love in its many forms," Us quoted Brownell telling Pride, "and I think that it's only right for us to foreground queer love and to tell queer stories."

Added Brownell: "I want to see more queer joy on my screens, and that was definitely a priority for me when I stepped into the showrunner role," a mantle she assumed from gay series creator Chris Van Dusen when he stepped away from that role after the show's second season.

LGBTQ+ fans had been wanting to see themselves represented in a love story on the costume drama, which centers around courtship among the younger set in 19th Century London high society. They finally did see that wish fulfilled in the spinoff limited series "Queen Charlotte," though not between two members of the nobility – rather, a pair of male domestic servants, one of them the attendant of Queen Charlotte and the other serving in the same capacity for King George III, were portrayed as maintaining a relationship in secret. Their loyalties to the King and Queen generated conflict and stress within the relationship.

But just who will be romancing someone of the same gender? Or will fans be in for the same sort of queerbaiting that other franchises, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has perpetrated?

"How exactly that plays out over this season and the next couple seasons, I can't say specifically," Brownell teased, "but I will say I'm excited for fans to see that."

The eight-episode third season is scheduled to drop in two parts of four episodes each, with Part 1 streaming May 16 and Part 2 streaming June 13.

Watch the "Bridgerton" Season 3 trailer below.