Why Has the ‘Bridgerton’ Hype Left Phoebe Dynevor Behind?

The single person to benefit most from Bridgerton‘s success has got to be Regé-Jean Page. The handsome British-Zimbawean actor dazzled folks hosting Saturday Night Live, is set to star in both the Dungeons and Dragons film and the star-studded action thriller The Grey Man, and is basically everyone’s 2021 crush. But Bridgerton is an ensemble show. More than that, it is a romance. Regé-Jean Page smoldered his way into our hearts by first wooing Phoebe Dynevor’s Daphne Bridgerton.

So where is the love for Phoebe Dynevor? While Regé-Jean Page has gone on to book numerous high-profile projects, Dynevor’s only upcoming work is Bridgerton Season 2 (where she will cede top billing to Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley). Bridgerton fans keep swooning over Page while forgetting the story only worked because of the chemistry between the two leads. Dynevor was as integral to Bridgerton‘s charms as Page was. So why has Bridgerton‘s leading lady been written out of the show’s success story?

Hey, fellow Bridgerton fans! Don’t forget about Phoebe Dynevor!

Season 1 of Netflix’s Bridgerton is primarily based on the very first novel in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series: The Duke and I. The steamy, dreamy romance novel follows Simon Bassett, the new Duke of Hastings, as attempts to survive his first social season as a single, handsome, and wealthy duke. He’s so desperate to avoid the legions of “Mamas” flinging their daughters at him that he agrees to put on a sham romance with his best friend’s sister, Daphne Bridgerton. In the book, Daphne is overlooked by suitors because she is so damn down-to-earth. Together, Simon and Daphne hope to get the mysterious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown to frame him as unavailable and Daphne as the most desirable catch of the season. It works, until the two fall in love with each other.

Netflix’s Bridgerton makes one radical change to this story: Phoebe Dynevor’s Daphne is not a pretty tomboy, but the diamond of the season. The show opens on her triumphant debut where Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuval) literally declares her as “flawless.” Daphne’s social stock only crashes when her overly protective brother Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) rudely dissuades every one of her suitors.

What’s interesting about this change is that it immediately undercuts what made Daphne so appealing to readers: her relatability. Romance novels lean heavily into the fantasies of readers and one of the most eternal dreams is to have someone handsome, dashing, and unavailable like the Duke see the potential in a woman who has been otherwise overlooked. The Daphne of Netflix’s Bridgerton has all eyes on her from the start. She is constantly the subject of jealous barbs and breathless praise. Essentially, she’s not exactly the kind of character ordinary women might immediately relate to. Except Phoebe Dynevor makes her so.

Phoebe Dynevor walks a tightrope with Daphne, making her both perfect and understandably flawed. She is a woman who lives a life in the gilded cage of her own good fortune. Born to high society, graced with natural beauty, and supported by a loving family, she is “too big to fail.” And yet she lives in a world that loves nothing more than to tear its women down. Any misstep and she is ruined for life and her sisters by association. Daphne might glide through life, but Dynevor gives us glimpses of a woman struggling under the pressure of maintaining perfection.

Because Dynevor pulls this off, we’re not only rooting for her, but living vicariously through her as she searches for true love in a time where marriage was a business contract. When Regé-Jean Page looks at her and says, “I burn for you,” we don’t just imagine him saying it to us; we are ecstatic that he’s saying it to Daphne. If Simon has seduced the world, it’s only because he successfully won Daphne first. Chemistry is a two-person game. Those hot and heavy sex scenes? A carefully choreographed dance duet between two game actors. Bridgerton‘s success? Thanks to two people.

Both Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor are fantastic in Bridgerton, but right now only one of them is booking major movies and becoming a household name.  Could it be that Page simply has a better management team, or is there something else going on? Have Bridgerton fans been so caught up in their thirst over the Duke that they’ve forgotten about our girl Daphne?

Phoebe Dynevor deserves love, too!

Watch Bridgerton on Netflix