And the show\u2019s boss Shonda Rhimes has now revealed that the backlash following his exit was so strong that she briefly considered inviting him back.<\/p>\n
According to a recent interview with Variety<\/a>, Rhimes said that when \u201ceverybody lost their minds\u201d following the news, she asked him whether he\u2019d want to be brought back for the second season.<\/p>\n \u201cRightfully, he said, \u2018I signed up to do this one lovely story, this closed-ended storyline. I\u2019m good!\u2019\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t blame him for that. I think that he was really smart to leave the perfection as the perfection.\u201d<\/p>\n Page played Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, in the first run of the series and it was always intended that he would appear only in the first season.<\/p> As Rhimes explained, the show plans to tell a different romance story of a different couple each season, focusing on each of the eight Bridgerton siblings in turn \u2013 as was the case in Julia Quinn\u2019s source novels.<\/p>\n And Rhimes said that giving Simon and Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) a happy ending was a relief after a career in which she has often had to split popular couples up.<\/p>\n \u201cFor once<\/em> in television, they were going to get to have their happily ever after versus \u2013 well, you know! In network television, you have to come up with 15 years of why a couple has to be apart,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n Bridgerton debuted on Netflix on Christmas Day 2020 and quickly became the biggest show in the streamer\u2019s history, although it has since been overtaken by global sensation Squid Game<\/a>.<\/p>\n A second season was officially confirmed in January 2021, with filming then commencing in spring \u2013 although no date has yet been given for the release of the follow-up series.<\/p>\n Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton will be the main star of the second season, with Sex Education star Simone Ashley joining the cast as his potential bride Kate Sharma.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, newcomer Charithra Chandran takes on the role of Kate\u2019s sister Edwina, Shelley Conn will play the girls\u2019 mother Lady Mary Sharma, and Calam Lynch will play rebellious printer\u2019s assistant Theo Sharpe.<\/p>\n As for Page, he\u2019s recently filmed two upcoming American blockbusters, The Gray Man and Dungeons & Dragons, and has also been heavily linked as a possible successor to Daniel Craig as James Bond.<\/p>\n By Patrick Cremona Published: Thursday, 04 November 2021 at 12:00 am There\u2019s no doubting that Reg\u00e9-Jean Page was the big breakout star from the first season of Bridgerton \u2013 and so the news that he wouldn\u2019t return for the second run was greeted with a certain degree of despair from fans. And the show\u2019s boss […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":6732,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/bridgerton-boss-invited-rege-jean-page-to-return-after-exit-backlash-scaled.jpg",2560,1710,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/bridgerton-boss-invited-rege-jean-page-to-return-after-exit-backlash-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/bridgerton-boss-invited-rege-jean-page-to-return-after-exit-backlash-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/bridgerton-boss-invited-rege-jean-page-to-return-after-exit-backlash-768x513.jpg",768,513,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/bridgerton-boss-invited-rege-jean-page-to-return-after-exit-backlash-1024x684.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/bridgerton-boss-invited-rege-jean-page-to-return-after-exit-backlash-1536x1026.jpg",1536,1026,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/bridgerton-boss-invited-rege-jean-page-to-return-after-exit-backlash-2048x1368.jpg",2048,1368,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Patrick Cremona Published: Thursday, 04 November 2021 at 12:00 am There\u2019s no doubting that Reg\u00e9-Jean Page was the big breakout star from the first season of Bridgerton \u2013 and so the news that he wouldn\u2019t return for the second run was greeted with a certain degree of despair from fans. And the show\u2019s boss…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/6731"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""White's\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2020\/12\/Whites-Gentlemans-Club-in-Bridgerton-bb055ad.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"White's\\"\/")
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