Bridgerton Star Expresses Concern About Filming Season 2 Anytime Soon

As buzz swirls around which characters Season 2 of Bridgerton will focus on, and if producers will indeed shoot new installments in March, star Phoebe Dynevor has misgivings about how COVID safety protocols could alter logistics.

“I can’t imagine how it would be possible to film under these circumstances,” Dynevor, who plays Daphne on the hit series, tells our sister site Deadline. Netflix has not officially announced a renewal, though it is all but certain. “There are so many extras and so many crew members, and it’s a very intimate show. It just baffles me how we would film it under COVID rules unless there was a vaccine beforehand.”

One of the streamer’s biggest launches to date, Bridgerton has been viewed by a projected 63 million households and is the inaugural series from Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland/Netflix deal. Showrunner Chris Van Dusen created the lush and racially inclusive Regency-era drama, which is based on author Julia Quinn’s vastly popular book series.

Production on Bridgerton‘s eight-episode freshman season came to a close around this time last year, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered and eventually altered the way television shows and movies are being shot now. But given how sexy and sensual this soapy offering is, one can understand Dynevor’s concerns.

For instance, the steamy love scenes between Daphne and Rege-Jean Page’s Duke of Hastings took six weeks to choreograph, she says. Page and Dynevor worked with an intimacy coordinator, and the actress says their chemistry couldn’t have blossomed underneath face shields and masks.

Dynevor shot Younger last year after wrapping up Bridgerton and did have to follow COVID safety protocols, which was very restrictive by comparison.

“When I was filming, it was masks on in rehearsals,” she says. “So, you don’t take them off until [they] say ‘action.’ Or at least we didn’t. It was a really strange experience. I didn’t see my character’s new boyfriend’s face until we were filming a scene together, which was really bizarre.”