‘Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton Open Up About the “Exciting” and “Terrifying” Future of Penelope and Colin

**Spoilers for Bridgerton Season 2 and potentially Seasons 3 & 4 Ahead!**

Bridgerton Season 2 is supposed to be Anthony Bridgerton’s (Jonathan Bailey) season, but one of his siblings couldn’t stop stealing the spotlight. From the moment Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) returns from his tour abroad, he’s making Penelope’s (Nicola Coughlan) heart go a-flutter and dredging up drama from the past. By season’s end, it seems that Colin and Penelope might be getting closer than ever. After all, Colin gallantly tries to come to her rescue and dances with her at the Featherington ball. He says she is special to him! But then Colin throws all that goodwill away by destroying the dream for Pen. Our sweet Miss Featherington overhears Colin telling his friends that he would “never dream of courting Penelope Featherington!”

So what’s the state of #Polin as Bridgerton Season 2 comes to a close? Are the two inching closer to a dreamy romance or does Penelope need to face the reality that she is forever going to be friend-zoned by the Bridgerton boy of her dreams?

Decider went to Colin Bridgerton himself, Luke Newton, for insight on how the beloved Bridgerton character is feeling about Penelope. “I think like I mentioned before, he’s kind of closed himself off from any romantic feelings,” Newton said. “Despite people trying to say to him, ‘Look what’s right in front of your eyes,’ I think he’s quite oblivious to how people feel towards him sometimes.”

Newton also revealed that he has definitely read Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton books and he’s well aware of the journey #Polin fans are expecting in Bridgerton Seasons 3 and 4.

“I think what’s most exciting about it is the longevity of their relationship, how we’ve seen them go from Season 1 all the way to Season 2 now, and there’s still so much to go within their relationship,” Newton said. “There’s so much to see, so much growth that needs to happen for us to get to a destination that we feel is you know, the end goal, I guess.”

Newton might be eagerly anticipating where Colin and Penelope’s relationship will go next, but the Bridgerton Season 2 finale throws quite the wrench into their budding romance. When Penelope overhears Colin mock the idea of “courting” her, it’s a direct reference to an iconic moment in Julia Quinn’s novels. In Bridgerton Book 3, An Offer From a Gentleman, Penelope is supposed to overhear Colin tell his brothers he would never marry Penelope. Pen quickly makes it clear she’s walked in on the conversation, to all three Bridgerton brothers’ horror. It’s a heartbreaking moment that leaves all parties embarrassed and Penelope and Colin’s potential romance dead in its tracks.

Newton revealed that Nicola Coughlan pushed for the moment to appear in Bridgerton Season 2 and Coughlan confirmed this to Decider.

“Luke and I had a Zoom chat with [showrunner] Chris Van Dusen and I was like, ‘Are you gonna put that in?’ And he was like, ‘Look, we’ve put it in and taken it out. We don’t know.’ And I always felt like it was very important to include it because Penelope is at a point now where she’s only ever seen Colin as this perfect, infallible human that can never do anything wrong. He’s so perfect. And she’s got to see that he isn’t,” Coughlan said. “That’s not how love works.”

While Newton understood the purpose of the scene, he was less than thrilled to act it out.

“Penelope is at a point now where she’s only ever seen Colin as this perfect, infallible human that can never do anything wrong,” Nicola Coughlan said. “And she’s got to see that he isn’t.”

“Generally, it was actually quite hard as an actor, having built this relationship between these two characters for so long to have that [moment],” Newton said. “I remember I was having to play on the fact that he’d been having drinks, he was high on revealing this scandal, and felt for the first time like he’d done something good. [He] was kind of just on cloud nine kind of boasting and showing off.”

“It’s kind of not a really nice side of Colin that we see. Despite all the good that he does do and has done in this season, there is a real moment of,  ‘Oh you really disappointed me here.'” Newton continued. “Like I’d give him a real slap around the face.”

“But it was really hard to play that. It didn’t feel like it came naturally, but I think it really stirs things up for the future of the show,” he added.

Coughlan said, “I knew it was going to be heartbreaking to film and it really was. It was actually the very last thing I filmed on Season 2. It was my final scene. But I think it’s important for the progression of their relationship.”

“It’s kind of not a really nice side of Colin that we see,” Luke Newton said. “Like I’d give him a real slap around the face.”

So where does that relationship go next? We know that Bridgerton has been renewed for two more seasons. If the show goes in order with the books, Penelope and Colin should take center stage in Season 4. However Shonda Rhimes recently gave an interview with ET teasing that Bridgerton might shuffle the order of romances from book to screen. While we don’t quite know what Rhimes meant by that, there’s no doubt the next relationship the show’s seeded the most so far is…#Polin. Newton and Coughlan are very aware they may be called upon to be the show’s leads in due course.

“Having that call [about Bridgerton‘s renewal for Seasons 3 and 4] felt like one of the most life-changing phone calls, actually. To be like, we’re definitely doing it,” Newton said. “For me, it was like, ‘Wow, this is the first time I’ll be leading a show of this scale. That’s mental!'”

Newton said, “I guess I’ve kind of tried to put it in a little box and not think about it for the whole year because I don’t want to get carried away and also don’t want to think about it too much yet, but it just really excites me, the thought of it. Being able to tell my mum that I was going to be exploring Colin and Penelope’s story was really exciting. And for my family to get to watch that, well I mean… some of it, not all of it. (That sounds a bit weird.) But yeah. I am really excited to see the story, just to be so highlighted as the forefront of the main story is gonna be really fun.”

Newton went on to say he’s all-too-eager to find out how the story will unfold onscreen. “I can’t wait to read the scripts. I’m that actor that’s like, ‘Please can I see scripts? I wanna know what’s happening in Episode 1 of next season,’ It’s like, ‘This one’s not even come out yet, can you give us a break Luke?'”

Coughlan, on the other hand, said, “Yeah, I mean I’m lucky that I don’t really know much about anything. I know on a very vague level what’s happening next season. But I don’t ask because I really want to just celebrate this season and get it out in the world and get the chance we never really got with Season 1 because we were all sitting in lockdowns.”

“It’s terrifying the prospect of it being about Penlope and Colin [in Season 3 or 4] because we’ve been there since the beginning and we’ve always known it was gonna be their relationship,” Coughlan said. “I’m very grateful it’s Luke that I’m going on that journey with. He’s so sweet. And I think that this season they’ve progressed their relationship so beautifully that I’m really rooting for them to get together. So I hope the audience will be, too.”

Watch Bridgerton on Netflix