A major Francesca plot line was cut from Bridgerton season 4. Showrunner Jess Brownell explained that the decision to keep the storyline out was to preserve the generally lighthearted tone of the season.Including the plot line would have been “too morbid.’
Spoilers for Bridgerton season 4 ahead.
As Bridgerton fans know, the Netflix show often takes a few creative liberties when it come to using the books penned by Julia Quinn as a guide. Francesca’s story ended up being much more different than her corresponding book, When He Was Wicked, and for an understable reason—following through with every plot point from her story in the book would have made Bridgerton season 4 tonally different.
During the season, Francesca suspected that she was pregnant with John’s child after his death. After undergoing an exam, she finds out that she wasn’t pregnant, but in the books she actually miscarried after John’s sudden death.
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Showrunner Jess Brownell opened up about the decision and explained that incorporating the miscarriage into Francesca’s story would have made the show feel too dark.
“Ultimately, I think John’s death and the funeral are already in so many ways such a departure from the tone of the show,” she told Swooon, according to Us Weekly. “I think episode 7 has hints of lightness, but it is a much darker version of Bridgerton in a way that I think is really interesting, and especially in the way we get to watch the family come together.”
Jess said that the storyline simply would have been “too morbid” to add into the script, but “we’re still very interested in honoring the fertility story line. It’s something we tried to honor this season, and we will continue honoring in her future season. But yeah, the miscarriage just felt like, for the screen, a bit too far. I think it would be difficult for Fran to come back from all that.”