The actor will not play Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings, in the next episodes of the hit Netflix series.
A few days ago the news that many did not expect was confirmed: Regé-Jean Page will not be in the second season of The Bridgertons. Surprising news due to the popularity of the British actor among fans of the Netflix series. We know more and more details about the decision. The producers had offered him to appear as a guest on some episodes and he turned it down.
Duke of Hastings
The actor has explained that from the beginning his contract was for one season and that the plot of the Duke of Hastings has already been completed. Something that, according to Page, makes sense if we look at the structure of Julia Quinn’s literary saga, that she dedicates each of her books to a different character. For him “it was interesting, because it seemed like a limited series. I can go in, I contribute a little bit and the Bridgerton family moves on,” he said in an interview with Variety.
But, what the producers did not expect is the repercussion that the protagonists of the series have had. Page has been one of the most acclaimed, not to mention the main attraction of the hit romantic series. So, despite the fact that everything was designed for him to appear in one season, Netflix has offered him the possibility of appearing in the second. Something that the actor has rejected.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the contract included him appearing as a guest star in four or five episodes. The price: $ 50,000 per episode. Perhaps if Page did not have other film projects among his plans, such as The Gray Man, the new film directed by the Russo brothers (Avengers: Endgame), or the new adaptation of Dragons and Dungeons, the actor would have been able to accept the offer. We will never know.
The second season of the series developed by the Shonda Rhimes production company for Netflix will focus its attention on a new member of the family: Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), who will be facing the new season with the aim of finding a wife. For this he will have the support of his already experienced sister Daphne, since Phoebe Dynevor will continue to be part of the cast after the departure of the one who was his co-star in the first installment.
