Bridgerton Might Just Rip Our Hearts Out in Season 3 with Major Death

Shondaland has never been short on drama, and Bridgerton has already proven that by tackling heavy themes of unrequited love, domestic abuse, out-of-wedlock pregnancy (a big deal for the Regency era), declining health, and devastating death in the family. And now the show may be gearing up to kill off one of its main characters in Season 3.

We know that Season 3 will be based on Julia Quinn's fourth book, Romancing Mister Bridgerton, which focuses on the friends-to-lovers romance of Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton, while skipping the third novel devoted to the love story of Benedict Bridgerton. This shift means that the upcoming season could feature a major time jump.

You see, the book takes place during the social season of 1824. And when we last saw the Bridgerverse characters in the spin-off series Queen Charlotte, they were greeting the new year of 1815. So if Season 3 wants to be faithful to the source material, it will have to fast forward nine years into the future.

Such a shift spells bad news for at least one major character. We are talking about Golda Rosheuvel's Queen Charlotte.

Unlike the Bridgertons, who were entirely created by Quinn's mind, Charlotte is based on a real historical figure. And while Bridgerverse doesn't try to make her all that accurate, the creators can't ignore the fact that the real queen died in 1818.

In fact, Charlotte of England never even met her famous granddaughter Queen Victoria and probably didn't know about her daughter-in-law's pregnancy (which was such an important final moment in the Bridgerton prequel). She died over six months before Victoria was born in May 1819.

The loss of Queen Charlotte would certainly be a huge blow to the Bridgerverse fandom — after all, the spin-off just helped us understand and deeply love this stunning character. Fortunately, her death is up in the air, as there's no conclusive evidence that Bridgerton will make the time jump.

On the contrary, the story of Penelope and Colin might be pushed back nine years to the year 1815 in order to continue the timeline of the show without any interruptions. This has not been officially announced, and the plot of the upcoming episodes is being kept under wraps, but one thing is for sure: a time jump before Season 3 will hurt the story more than help it.

So it looks like Queen Charlotte is off the hook for now. But you can never be sure in Shondaland.