Bridgerton received backlash for gender-swapping Francesca’s future love interest from Michael to Michaela — but did that affect Masali Baduza‘s return in season 4?
The Netflix series returned on Thursday, January 29, with Francesca (Hannah Dodd) and husband John (Victor Alli) coming back from Scotland. He made reference to their time away, which included sharing a home with her sister Eloise (Claudia Jessie) and his cousin.
The rest of part 1 largely centered around Francesca adjusting to married life. Despite trying to expand their family, Francesca and John hadn’t conceived yet — and she realized that she never experienced a “pinnacle” while with her husband.
After a much-needed conversation with John, Francesca was feeling better in her marriage and even planned a party at their London property. The gathering was interrupted, however, by the arrival of Michaela, which didn’t leave Francesca too thrilled.
'Bridgerton' Cast and Crew Discuss Gender-Swapping Francesca's Love Interest
Season 3 of the hit Netflix series originally expanded on Francesca’s love story by having her meet John during her debut into society. By the end of part 2, Francesca and John were married and making plans for the future. The book about Francesca’s romance — When He Was Wicked — 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.
Liam Daniel/Netflix“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.”
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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 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.”
Season 4 of Bridgerton returns for part 2 on Thursday, February 26.
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