(Frankly Ridiculous) Money Regé-Jean Page Was Offered to Return to Bridgerton
Did they even check the new roles Page was getting?
Bridgerton, in which Regé-Jean Page played Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings, undoubtedly boosted his career. However, Page did not return for Bridgerton Season 2 or any subsequent seasons.
He originally signed on to play in the series, set in an alternate history Regency England, for one year and then declined to extend the contract after it expired.
Why did Page make this decision? There were several reasons. Firstly, Basset's character arc in Season 1 was already concluded, with a definite start, bright culmination, and the satisfying end. There was no real place for Page's character in the main plot anymore, and the offer to return assumed that he would only be a guest star in Season 2.
The offer was only extended in the first place because his character became a fan favourite in the series, which proved very popular - initially, there were no plans to include him past Season 1. However, the offer did not include the kind of compensation one might expect for a fan-favourite actor.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Page was offered only $50,000 per episode, which is not particularly large even by TV show standards.
When preparations for Season 2 of Bridgerton were underway, Page had already been invited to join the cast of The Gray Man (2022), a lavishly-funded Netflix blockbuster. Not for a lead role, mind you, but still. Since then, he has starred in another high-profile film, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, released just last month.
Admittedly, these films and roles were not great successes, and there is no definite information about how much money Page was paid for those roles in any remotely reputable sources.
Nevertheless, back in 2021, it was clear that Page was moving up fast in show business: playing supporting characters in big-budget blockbusters is almost always more prestigious and profitable than playing supporting characters in TV series!
So, it is not really surprising that Page turned down the offer from Bridgerton's showrunners.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter