Luke Thompson Teases A 'Maybe More Romantic' Benedict Bridgerton In Season 3

Actor Luke Thompson is looking forward to finally getting his own love story featured on “Bridgerton.”

The Netflix period drama has been following the book series based by Julia Quinn. If the show continues to follow the book series – and there’s no guarantee that they will – Benedict Bridgerton’s love story is featured in the third volume “An Offer from a Gentleman.”

Thompson spoke with Entertainment Weekly to tease what’s ahead for Benedict in season 3.

Thompson revealed that the character shift in the show’s second season helped prepare him for what’s to come for his own love story. “In season 1, he's so back-footed that he's quite unavailable in a sense that you don't feel like anything can touch him,” he explained. “He just leans in the background and smirks and just lets himself be pulled along.”

“This season, you get to see a little chink in the armor,” he continued. “You get to see that actually, partly through watching his brother deal with finding love — and the show also delves into the Bridgerton family past as well — you can put together the fact that actually there is something a bit more vulnerable about him.”

“But also you only get a little taste of it. That's a credit for the writing,” he added. “We're with Benedict for the long haul, so we don't show everything, but you get a sense that there is something definitely underneath that is maybe more romantic and more deeply felt than we have necessarily been shown so far.”

“Benedict has such a lovely openness and fluidity about him generally, and that's really, really fun to play because it could go anywhere,” Thompson shared. “What I would say is that we're only in season 1 and just getting into season 2. People get very excited and they want everything to be explored in the first few seasons and every corner of sexuality, gender. Obviously, there's a way to go, so we'll see what happens with Benedict, but we're only on season 2, so there's lots of space for him to explore all sorts of things.”

“As a final note, the only thing I would say is I tend not think in terms of hoping too much because an actor's job is to fully step inside the character's shoes,” he continued. “If I had an opinion on that, I would be one foot in and one foot out. It's very important for me to be two feet in, and that the writer is a bit of a god in the sense that they're controlling your destiny. I just need to go on the journey that they put me on. I would certainly love him to retain that because it's such a lovely quality, that fluidity and openness, but beyond that, I don't know.”

However, he did say “never say never” concerning his future relationship with Madame Delacroix.

“It's very difficult with Bridgerton, because as soon as you think you've got a purchase on something, they suddenly subvert it, so who knows? It will depend where it all takes us,” he teased. “I couldn't possibly speculate.”

“The point I always come back to with Bridgerton is that the writers will have much better ideas and much more interesting and complex ideas than I could ever have about where it's going, and that's partly the pleasure of being an actor,” he continued. “I'm just, on a certain level, being a little bit of a puppet — not in the sense that you have no ownership over what you're doing, but you are at the writer's mercy, so you work with what you've got. I couldn't possibly say because I don't know where the story is leading.”

When asked if Benedict will maintain his silliness in his love story, Thompson replied, “it's interesting because when you fall in love or when you find a connection or a relationship that works, there has to be some give and take.”

“There is loss in forming a connection like that, and that's the tension in all the characters in leaving a family and leaving a structure that you know, where you know who you are,” he continued. “You know your place within that family, and then suddenly, you're almost slightly redefining yourself.”

“I'd love for that quality to stay there, but part of the tension in the show is, what do you hold onto and what do you let go of when you start a relationship and emerge out of your family and build a family of your own?” he continued. “For someone to find their center, they have to be a little less fun and easy because then they're not holding their own. It's a lesson in probably being a little less agreeable and a little less adjustable than Benedict is.”

Season 2 of “Bridgerton” is currently available to stream on Netflix.