Why The Duke Isn't Coming Back

Every other day, it seems, someone in the Bridgerton Fandom posts something about wishing that Rege-Jean Page would come back to Bridgerton.

If I am feeling kind, I presume that they are a newcomer to the Fandom, ignorant of what came before and how filming works. The rest of the time, I have to presume that they're the worst kind of entitled, somehow feeling owed exactly what they want in terms of eye-candy and sub-plots, and refusing to acknowledge that actors are people, too.

In fairness, this isn't just about the Duke.

Phoebe Dyvner, who starred in Season 1 as Daphne Bridgerton, didn't return for Season 3. I expected her to play a role in Season 2, because her own rocky road to love was part of Anthony's redemption, and Daphne could offer advice that Anthony wouldn't accept from anyone else. I didn't think she'd return for Season 3, though, because much like the Duke of Hastings, her story was done. Daphne has her own life as a Duchess and a wife and mother, and as much as we the fans adore her, it's not really worth the studio shelling out the Big Bucks to keep her coming back for cameos.

Even as I write this article, we're getting First Look news of Bessie Carter (Prudence Featherington) starring in another Period Piece, and the actor who played Albion Finch announcing that he won't be back.

This isn't surprising either. The Featheringtons got so much screen-time in Seasons 1-3 because we were leading up to Colin and Penelope's Season, and they're a big part of that story. Now that Benedict's Season is coming up, they don't play as much of a role, and Penelope is only likely to stay on because of her role as Lady Whistledown, Colin's wife and Eloise's best friend.

Anthony and Kate are the exception here, and much like Lady Penelope Whistledown, that's more due to their characters. Violet is the mother of the Bridgerton family, but Anthony is the only father many of the younger Bridgertons remember, as well as being the Head of the family. As such, he plays a more present role in his siblings' stories, so we can expect him and hopefully Kate to be around for a while.

That's not the case with the Duke of Hastings.

From his very first introduction, Simon Basset, masterfully portrayed by Rene-Jean Page, is shown to be an introvert more comfortable travelling or in the country than he is in a ballroom. Now that he's over his Daddy Issues and is a father himself, of course he's going to be off-screen at his estates with his children, instead of taking centre stage in London!

Remember Daphne's opening line in Season 2? Perfect exposition drop!

"You all realise that I left my husband and child at home to be here?"

It's like half the Fandom doesn't grasp how narrative consistency works...

Rege-Jean was given the chance to come back for limited appearances for Season 2, at $50K per episode, but that’s still a big commitment for not a lot of money, when you consider that many main actors were making six figures per episode.

Especially when you factor in rehearsals, filming time, costume fitting, and travel + Quarantine during COVID-19.

One also has to remember that much of Seasons 2 and 3 were filmed during Covid-19 Lockdowns. Actors didn't get to just jump between film-sets, they had to pick a project and commit to it. International travel often meant days or weeks in a hotel room or singular place of residence, to minimise the risk of transmission.

Coming back for Season 2, where he realistically would have only had a few scenes at Albury Hall, but those scenes still would have required a lot of dance rehearsals and filming hours for Pall Mall, would have meant passing up significant roles in Dungeons and Dragons and The Grey Man (and probably more complaints from entitled fans that he didn't have enough screen-time, as well as the risk of detracting from Anthony and Kate's storyline)

Then there's the Racism.

As much as we'd all like to pretend that in the 20th century, Racism is a thing of the past, it isn't. As much as we'd like the colour-blindness of Bridgerton to carry over to the real world, it doesn't.

From the moment the casting was announced, Rene-Jean was getting backlash in the form of #NotMyDuke.

Once the season aired, he proved the haters wrong (and good grief, the number of Thirst!Posts that bordered on or Olympic Long Jumped over the line to flat-out creepy and scarily entitled...). Suddenly you couldn't scroll social media without posts from random people begging Rene-Jean Page to date them, or explicitly detailing what they'd like to do to him.

Pro-Tip: It's not cool when you treat actresses like that, and it doesn't stop being wrong or creepy just because the victim is an actor.

Then the news broke that he wasn't coming back, and suddenly fans were outraged that he had decided he didn't want to keep dealing with fans for Season 2.

Post after article after opinion, all either demanding that Netflix re-cast a role that became decidedly minor after Season 1, or tearing Rene-Jean Page down in comparison to other actors who stayed on because their story hadn't been told yet. (And who will probably also leave the show once their part is over)

Even now, nearly half a decade later, there are still daily posts either suggesting a random actor of colour as the "New Duke Who Won't Abondon His Fans", unenforcable petitions to force Rene-Jean Page to come back (Free Will still exists and slavery is illegal, everyone!), or comments about how he somehow owes it to his fans to come back and finish the series.

Ruby Stokes got nothing like the hate Rene-Jean faced for being Lady Not Appearing In This Show and then necessitating an actual re-cast with Hannah Dodd when Bridgerton filming conflicted with a starring role in a different series!

Look, part of me gets it.

I will happily watch that man in any movie or show he is in. I lost count of how many times I watched Honour Amongst Thieves and was glued to the screen for the bits with the Paladin. I could listen to that voice on repeat for a year, even if he was just reciting the dictionary.

I would love nothing more than to see him dancing with Daphne, being a father to his children, repairing his friendship with Anthony, finally finding the love and happiness he despaired of ever getting.

But that's not how a show based on a book series with different main characters works. That's not how filming works.

Perhaps they could have locked all the actors into 8-Season contracts like they were filming Game of Thrones. But they didn't, and Rene-Jean Page moved on with his life.

Perhaps it's time for the fandom to do the same.