{"id":355741,"date":"2026-03-24T15:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T15:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/355741\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T15:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T15:35:07","slug":"bridgerton-season-5-sets-francesca-and-michaela-stirling-as-leads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/355741\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Bridgerton’ Season 5 Sets Francesca and Michaela Stirling as Leads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tShock and delight: \u201cBridgerton<\/a>\u201d has set Francesca (Hannah Dodd) and Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza)<\/a> as the leads for Season 5 of the Shonda Rhimes-created Netflix period romance.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Tuesday, Netflix unveiled a first-look teaser for the fifth season of the series, which is based on Julia Quinn\u2019s romance novels about the love lives of the eight siblings in the titular Bridgerton family, and announced production had begun in the UK on the eight-episode season.<\/p>\n

\n\tPer Netflix\u2019s description for \u201cBridgerton\u201d Season 5, \u201cThe fifth season of\u00a0Bridgerton\u00a0spotlights introverted middle daughter Francesca (Hannah Dodd). Two years after losing her beloved husband John, Fran decides to reenter the marriage mart for practical reasons. But when John\u2019s cousin Michaela (Masali Baduza) returns to London to tend to the Kilmartin estate, Fran\u2019s complicated feelings will have her questioning whether to stick to her pragmatic intentions or pursue her inner passions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix also included these character descriptions for the new leads:<\/p>\n

\n\tHannah Dodd\u00a0as\u00a0Francesca Stirling. Countess of Kilmartin: Reserved and contained, Francesca has long felt out of place in the world. As Michaela stirs up new feelings inside her, Fran will make discoveries about herself that could change everything.<\/p>\n

\n\tMasali Baduza\u00a0as\u00a0Michaela Stirling. Beneath Michaela\u2019s charming and vivacious exterior hides a vulnerable young woman who is quick to run the second she feels discomfort. But this season, Michaela must face her vulnerability head-on as she\u2019s forced to navigate her relationship to her late cousin\u2019s legacy \u2014 and to Francesca.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBridgerton\u201d Season 4, which was released in two parts on Netflix between January and February, focused on the love story between Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha). <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBridgerton\u201d Season 3, which also launched as two installments from May to June 2024, starred Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan). Season 2 in March 2022 was centered on Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), and the December 2020 debut installment followed Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset (Reg\u00e9-Jean Page).<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing Season 4, the remaining Bridgerton siblings left to tell their love stories after Benedict include Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie), Francesca (Hannah Dodd), Gregory (Will Tilston) and Hyacinth (Florence Hunt). That lineup is also the order that Julia Quinn\u2019s \u201cBridgerton\u201d book series follows. However, the show has shaken up the format before, choosing to swap the order of Benedict and Colin\u2019s stories.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn May 2025, Netflix renewed the series for a fifth and sixth season<\/a> without confirming which Bridgerton would be the focus of those years. The subject was teased throughout the airing of Season 4, with Francesca being positioned as the likely frontrunner despite the fact Eloise is the book-accurate next contender. <\/p>\n

\n\tFrancesca\u2019s storyline in the fourth season included the death of her husband John (Victor Alli) and hinted at her future with his cousin, Michaela (Masali Baduza), who is a gender-swapped version of Francesca\u2019s ultimate love interest in the books, Michael. Meanwhile, Eloise\u2019s plot was again about her being opposed to the idea of the marriage mart, but slowly becoming more open to that lifestyle through watching her little sister, Hyacinth\u2019s, excitement for coming out in society one day. <\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the teaser for \u201cBridgerton\u201d Season 5 via the video below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shock and delight: \u201cBridgerton\u201d has set Francesca (Hannah Dodd) and Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza) as the leads for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[51096,146,85,46,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-355741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bridgerton","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}