THE RUNDOWNBridgerton’s showrunner shared their thoughts on recasting major characters.Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Jean Page were the stars of season 1.Page stepped away after the season concluded, and Dynevor last appeared in season 2.With the conclusion of Bridgerton season 4 this week, fans are curious about returning characters for season 5. Each season focuses on a different love story from the Bridgerton family, with past couples often returning to fill out the cast. Season 1 focused on Daphne and Simon Basset, played by Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Jean Page.Page stepped away after season 1, and Dynevor made her last appearance on the show in season 2. Showrunner Jess Brownell told Variety on February 26 that she has never considered recasting either of them.“We are not interested in recasting the characters,” Brownell shared. “I think it would feel like a disservice to everything Regé and Phoebe set up in season 1, and all the beautiful work they put into those characters.”She continued, “We would love to potentially have them back at some point, but I think, logistically, we want to make sure we bring them back when we have something really meaty for them. And to have them come back to say a line at a funeral [in season 4] and just prove that they were there, it wouldn’t feel right for many reasons.”Brownell added that the “camera doesn’t capture everything” and the couple is “hypothetically there.”As for the actors, she would “love to find a time to bring everyone back at some point in the future.”When Page stepped away from the series, he told Variety, “It’s a one-season arc. It’s going to have a beginning, middle, end—give us a year. [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 that if they chose to recast, he would be okay with it, saying that the production team is “free to do as they like.”After she was not included in season 3, Dynevor told Variety in January 2023, “I did my two seasons. I’ve done what I wanted to do with that character, and she had a great arc. If they ask me back in the future, who knows [though]?”In January 2025, speaking to The Direct, she spoke about the upcoming fourth season, saying, “I mean, they’ve not called me yet. And I think they’re shooting season four right now. So, I’m still waiting for that call.”In a June 2024 interview with Variety, Brownell said that they decided it wasn’t necessary to directly address either character’s absence.“There was a version of the scripts this season where at Penelope and Colin’s wedding, we threw a line at the fact that like, ‘Oh, Daphne wishes she could be here—but she’s pregnant again,’ or, ‘Daphne and Simon? I just saw them, they’re sitting over there,’” Brownell said. “But the truth of the matter is that it just gets a little wonky to bring them up, and then not see them. But I firmly feel that in my brain, they are still a part of the universe.”