Nicola Coughlan Was Totally Giving Lady Whistledown At The 2024 Emmys

Penelope...Or Lady Whistledown?

Nicola Coughlan wore a gorgeous silver, metallic dress to present an award at the 2024 Emmys. The sophisticated look (complete with a peplum silhouette!) is chic, sharp, and has the exact sass that Lady Whistledown brings to the Ton.

What is the new season of Bridgerton about?

After giving up on whether Colin could ever return her feelings, Penelope decides to find a husband who will give her the independence she needs as Lady Whistledown. But when Colin offers to help her along the way, and his help begins to pay off, he realizes that his feelings for her might be more than platonic.

Netflix just released a bunch of new Bridgerton season 3 images that give us more insight into the characters, their emotions, and their relationships. Cressida and Eloise might be friends now? Penelope might be entering her Reputation era? Colin is super moody for no reason? Color me intrigued!

Which couple will season 3 of Bridgerton be about?

Bridgerton season 3 will focus on Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington. This is the first time fans will get to see a couple they've been rooting for since the beginning.

The official trailer (which dropped on April 11) features plenty of flowers and beautiful costumes, and in addition to the romance, pining, and stolen glances between Colin and Penelope, I can already tell this will be the most romantic season yet. Friends-to-lovers is my personal favorite romantic trope, and this is the Bridgerton couple I have been waiting for!

During the junket for her new series Big Mood, actress Nicola Coughlan (who plays season 3 leading lady Penelope Featherington) expressed how excited she is for Penelope to shine. "It felt really different this time, I think just because she's finally a grown up and I love coming back to a show and playing a character again, and finding the new sides to them," Nicola says. "She's becoming a woman and finding her self-worth — that side of her I really loved getting to play. It was great."

"And the glow!" Nicola's Big Mood co-star Lydia West adds. "You look so stunning. [I love] the different wigs."

"When the wig comes off, it's so sad because you just like under a wig, you just look like a little wet rat and it's all your hair is just all slicked back," Nicola jokes.

When is Bridgerton season 3 is coming out?

Netflix announced on December 12 that season 3 of Bridgerton will release in two parts in 2024: Part I on May 16 and Part II on June 13th. Until then, catch up on the first two seasons, as well as the prequel series Queen Charlotte, on Netflix!

Why is Penelope wearing more blues and greens than her staple yellows?

It's clear throughout the first season that each family has their own color representing the journey ahead of them — the beloved Bridgertons wear sophisticated blues and lavenders while the Featheringtons wear loud yellows as they try to climb the social ladder.

This is very intentional, and throughout season 3 we'll see Penelope transition from her staple yellow dresses into more greens and blues, a symbol of her union with Colin Bridgerton. Costume designer Sophie Canale confirmed this color theory to People, sharing that the green dress Penelope wears in episode four was a nod to her future relationship with Colin. After all, green IS a mix of yellow and blue.

In the beginning of the season, Penelope and her mother are both wearing green instead of their usual lemon yellow. But instead of a pastel green like her previous dress, this one is very vibrant and tinged with a lot of warm tones. Even if Penelope is growing, the ties to her family are still strong.

Considering season two ended with Penelope getting into a fight with Eloise — and overhearing Colin say he would never court her — it makes sense that Penelope would turn more into her family than ever before.However, in an on-set interview with This Morning, Coughlan wore a dress that appears to be a muted seafoam, meaning it features more blue than yellow.

If Penelope wears lime at the beginning of the season and seafoam at the end, it's a perfect representation of her emotional arc. She moves from feeling overshadowed by her family to being embraced by Colin (hopefully sooner rather than later!!), and it creates a whole new color just for her.

Penelope is, and always will be, a mix of both Featherington and her love for Colin. Good thing for us, Canale takes us on that journey with her.

What are the season 3 Bridgerton episodes?

We finally got the official episode list for Bridgerton season 3, and it could hold huge meaning for Colin and Penelope. Just like Pen's wardrobe reflects her emotional arc, the episode titles have us expecting a major transformation. Starting the season with "Out of the Shadows" and ending with "Into the Light" could be a ~reflection~ of Penelope moving from wallflower to main character. It could also mean we'll see her embrace those beautiful, sunny (read: yellow) parts of herself she's wanted to hide in the past. Here are the episodes for Bridgerton season 3:

1. "Out of the Shadows"
2. "How Bright the Moon"
3. "Forces of Nature"
4. "Old Friends"
5. "Tick Tock"
6. "Romancing Mister Bridgerton"
7. "Joining of Hands"
8. "Into the Light"

Who's in the season 3 Bridgerton cast?

Season 3 of Bridgerton will be led by Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton, and we'll see lots of our favorites return, like Jonathan Bailey, Simone Ashley, Luke Thompson, Claudia Jessie, Hannah Dodd, Will Tilston, Florence Hunt, Ruth Gemmell.

Will Penelope and Eloise happily reunite in season 3 of Bridgerton?

It seems like former best friends Penelope and Eloise are having a conversation. Judging from the expression on Penelope's face and Eloise's folded arms, it appears that things are still tense between them. Jess Brownwell, Bridgerton's show runner told the outlet, "I'm rooting for them," while admitting their friendship breakup is, "...a chance for the two of them to grow and learn about themselves..."

It's interesting to see if Eloise will remain icy towards Penelope after the abrupt end of their friendship in Season 2.

Why is Lady Danbury so important in Bridgerton?

We loved getting to know more about Lady Danbury in Queen Charlotte, and turns out, we weren't the only ones! At a Bridgerton x International Delight event in NYC, we talked to Lady Danbury herself, Adjoa Andoh! "In seasons one and two, I had a pretty strong sense of who Lady Danbury was," Andoh says in our exclusive interview. "Doing Queen Charlotte filled in a lot of the early life for me in concert with Shonda [Rhimes'] enormous storytelling brain. And so I could take all of that into season three."

Andoh also says that since the Bridgerton's grandfather was the love of Lady Danbury's life, it explains why she cares so much about their family: "You understand the investment she has in the Bridgerton family more because they are his grandchildren, and so I am invested in them because I loved him."

But for Bridgerton season 3, we'll also see a stronger connection between Lady Danbury and Penelope Featherington. "I think Lady Danbury sees a lot of her young self in Penelope," she continues. "I think she's sort of an overlooked item who is shoved in one direction just as Penelope is an overlooked item who no one thinks is ever gonna get married. So both of these women in their young lives have had to understand that if they are gonna survive, they have to live on their own natural brilliance, strategy, intelligence, and gifts."

"[Season 3 of Bridgerton] made me sad and it made me happy and all those things in between because it just reminded me of being the wallflower teenager that I was," Andoh says. "I think there's heaps of us out there, not just women, I think there's heaps of us out there who have felt that we are regarded as less than by our peers. And so, this is the season for us."

Andoh's advice for the wallflowers out there? "I have a friend who says, 'What's for you won't pass you by,'" she says. "Don't wait and pine, hang out with your friends have a fabulous life. The world is amazing and interesting and just dive into your curiosity. Think about what's fabulous about you and lean hard in on that and don't wait for someone else to give you the confirmation that you are as fabulous as you should know you are."

Will Benedict still play a role in season 3 of Bridgerton?

The third book in the Bridgerton series, An Offer From A Gentleman, focuses on Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Beckett. Even though the third season of the show will revolve around Colin and Penelope, fans are anticipating an important plot point could still happen this year.

"I'm reading Benedict's book, and between the ball the Bridgertons threw where he met Sophie and when they meet again there's a gap of two years, enough for the unfolding of Penelope and Colin's [arc]," lovin_da_dix says on Reddit. "My theory is that the Bridgertons will throw the ball this season, we would briefly see Sophie and the writers would carry the storyline through season 4."

Not only would a ball give us an excuse to see Colin and Penelope dance again, but it would also set up the next season of the show! That is some serious script planning. But considering the characters in Bridgerton love throwing a party, and a ball would fit right in with the book's timeline, this is one theory we could totally see coming true.

What is the mirror scene in Bridgerton season 3?

In a sneak peek from season 3 of Bridgerton, we see Penelope and Colin standing in front of a mirror (looking longingly at each other, of course). "A look such as this from Mister Colin Bridgerton would surely make even the most perennial of wallflowers swoon, would it not?" the official Bridgerton X account asks.

While Colin and Penelope don't share words in the clip, their hands do brush, which is something period drama fans always go crazy over. Plus, the sneak peek as a whole totally references the upcoming "mirror scene" (where Colin wants to have sex in front of a mirror so Penelope can see how beautiful she is) Bridgerton fans have been waiting for.

Watch This Official Clip From Bridgerton Season 3

After Colin told literally everyone at the Featherington ball that he would "never" court Penelope (I'm still fuming, TBH), he finally realizes something is wrong in their friendship. When he says he misses her, soft-spoken and sweet Penelope finally confronts him about the hurtful things he said at the party, which is exactly what he needs to hear if you ask me. If this man doesn't beg for her forgiveness I don't want it!! Watch the clip here.

Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey gave us the dance scene to rival all dance scenes during Bridgerton season 2 (the tension! The yearning! The eyebrows!). But as a married couple in season 3 of Bridgerton, they're all smiles! TBH, I would also be all smiles if I was married to either one of these people.

The First Season 3 Bridgerton Sneak Peek

There are two things I love aboutthis new season 3 Bridgerton clip: first, the tension and chemistry between Nicola Coughlan's Penelope and Luke Newton's Colin is SO REAL and I am HERE FOR IT. The second is how awkward this interaction is because when you realize you're falling in love with your best friend, it really is awkward sometimes. I cannot get enough of this duo and I can't wait to see them finally admit their feelings for each other (hopefully after some more will-they-won't-they pining) later this spring. Watch the sneak peek here.

Colin doesn't look too shabby either.

(Hopefully) a happy couple in the works!

...Or not as happy as we thought.

It looks like the loving couple are still enjoying marital bliss in season 3 of Bridgerton.

Colin's expression makes us want to ask him, "Why so serious?"

Colin may be showing Penelope potential suitors she can engage with.

Something is really concerning Lady Violet, but Francesca (played by Hannah Dodd who replaces Ruby Stokes) and Hyacinth seem to be taking it in stride.