‘Sanditon’ Season 2 Showrunner and Stars Defend Killing Off Sidney

Sanditon Season 2 premiered tonight on Masterpiece on PBS, reuniting fans with the likes of Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams), Georgiana Lambe (Crystal Clarke), and the Denham and Parker clans. One character conspicuously missing? Sidney Parker (Theo James). The dashing Austen hero wasn’t just gone from the show; he was killed off in Antigua within the first few seconds of the show! Charlotte and Sidney wouldn’t get their happy ending after all, but why?

Sandition first premiered on Masterpiece back in 2020 and immediately charmed audiences with its fresh take on Jane Austen. The series was based on a novel that Austen had started working on before her death, but was never finished. The story followed young Charlotte Heywood, a farmer’s daughter who gets to spend a season at the seaside resort of Sanditon. There she rubs elbows with schemers and heiresses. More importantly, she meets and falls in love with a handsome man named Sidney Parker. Season 1 ended with Sidney opting to marry money to save his family’s fortunes and Charlotte returning home broken-hearted.

When Sanditon was cancelled by British broadcaster ITV, it seemed unlikely that Charlotte and Sidney’s story would continue. After fans rallied, Masterpiece and Red Planet Productions worked hard to bring the show back. However not every actor opted to return to the show. Theo James wasn’t the only actor who passed on returning to Sanditon for Season 2, but his was the only character killed off. So why did Sidney Parker have to die? And how does the cast feel about the decision?

Sanditon Season 2 showrunner Justin Young told Decider Sidney had to die in order for the show to continue without Theo James. “Very quickly, I said the only way this is going to work is if we basically take Sidney out of the equation right at the top of Season 2. Otherwise, there’s no way the audience is going to invest in any other love interest. Again, it’ll just be waiting for him to return,” he said.

Sanditon star Rose Williams agreed with the decision because “it honors the character in the most authentic way.”  

“I think if he had just disappeared overseas or if he was away married, that would be too ambiguous. And there’d be the hope that he’d return,” Williams said. “So I feel like it really does justice to the character because even though the season opens with his passing, his character is very much felt throughout the second season. Which is only right, I think.”

Turlough Convery, who plays Sidney’s brother Arthur, also agreed, noting that death by illness was common in the Regency era. “I think the way it’s handled in the script is really true to how hard it would’ve been for the family and for the friends and loved ones of Sidney to receive that news,” Convery said. “Rose does such a beautiful job capturing what it feels like to have lost love and have to figure out a way to live in this world knowing that you will never see that person again. I think with everything — which has been the tragedy of 2020 and the pandemic — I think so many people have a much deeper understanding of what it feels like to lose someone.”

Williams added that through Charlotte’s grief, we’re able to “honor that emotional connection” between Charlotte and Sidney.

“Especially as the love story was so integral to the first season and to what people loved about the show so much,” Williams said. “I like to see Season 2 as a chapter of transformation for her. Through the grief and lessons that she learned from Sidney she starts to come closer to an understanding of who she is.”

So who is Charlotte Heywood? We’ll have to watch the rest of Sanditon Season 2 to find out.

Where to stream Sanditon