Bridgerton has found Kate’s younger sister, Edwina.
Newcomer Charithra Chandran has been cast in the coveted season 2 role on Netflix’s Regency drama based on author Julia Quinn’s best-selling romance novels, Netflix confirmed on social media Monday. Deadline first reported the news last week.
Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey, whose character Anthony Bridgerton is set to be the focus of the upcoming season (a la Quinn’s second book, The Viscount Who Loved Me), follows Chandran on Instagram.
This is Chandran’s first major TV or film role. The actress’ first professional screen credit is an episode on IMDBtv’s Alex Rider.
Chandran joins season 2’s new female lead Simone Ashley, who will play Edwina’s older sister, Kate Sharma, the latter of whom captures Anthony’s attention. In the books, Edwina is the one who initially catches the viscount’s heart. According to Netflix’s official character description, “Edwina has been taught by her older sister Kate to be the perfect debutante. She’s kind-natured and endlessly endearing. But while she may be young and naive, she also knows what she wants: a true love match.”
The upcoming season, which begins production this spring in London, follows the eldest Bridgerton, Anthony, as he “intends to dominate the social season.” Loosely based on The Viscount Who Loved Me, season 2 will chart Anthony’s quest to find a wife.
Additionally, English actress Shelley Conn will play Kate and Edwina’s mother, Mary Sharma, “an Earl’s daughter whose marriage to a tradesman once embroiled her family in scandal [who] has now returned to London with her own daughters and is forced to endure the scrutiny of the ton yet again.”
Calam Lynch will portray Theo Sharpe, “a hardworking printer’s assistant” who is “not just a working class man, he’s also an intellectual who fights for the rights for all.”
Merlin’s Rupert Young is set to play Jack, a new character created for the series that does not exist in the novels. He is being described as the mysterious “newest member of the ton with a connection to one of its most notable families.”
Bailey recently spoke with ET to offer a preview of what’s to come for Anthony on his road to find love.
“It’s just going to get more exciting and convoluted and sexier, I think,” the actor said, adding the series will surely “be pushing boundaries every single way” and “that the story is going to be really exciting.”
“I think Chris Van Dusen has got this amazing ability to take Julia Quinn’s extraordinary books and her amazing worlds that she delicately filled with excitement and sexiness. And he takes it to a whole other level,” Bailey said, when asked how much the new season will parallel the narrative in the books. “So the fact that we’re following Anthony’s pursuit for love shows that you know there’s definitely going to be some similarities.”
Bailey played coy about whether fan-favorite character Kate Sheffield will be a major player in the new season, and now we know why. “Having read the second book, if Anthony gets to meet anyone half as brilliant as Kate Sheffield is, then he’s going to be a very lucky man,” he said.
