Masali Baduza and Hannah Dodd have been announced as the leads of Bridgerton Season 5.

• South African actor Masali Baduza will take the lead in Bridgerton’s fifth season.
• The season follows Francesca Bridgerton’s gender-swapped love story with Michaela, based on Julia Quinn’s When He Was Wicked.
• Production on Bridgerton’s fifth season has officially begun, Netflix has announced.

South African actor Masali Baduza will take the lead in the fifth season of Netflix’s popular period drama, Bridgerton.

The streaming service announced that production for the next season has officially begun and will centre on the love story of Francesca (Hannah Dodd) and Michaela (Baduza).

A logline for the upcoming season reads:

“The fifth season of Bridgerton spotlights introverted middle daughter Francesca (Hannah Dodd). Two years after losing her beloved husband, John, Fran decides to re-enter the marriage mart for practical reasons. But when John’s cousin Michaela (Masali Baduza) returns to London to tend to the Kilmartin estate, Fran’s complicated feelings will have her questioning whether to stick to her pragmatic intentions or pursue her inner passions.”

This season is based on Julia Quinn’s sixth Bridgerton novel, When He Was Wicked, and follows Francesca’s story with John’s cousin, Michael Stirling. In season three, the show did a gender swap, casting Michaela Stirling as Francesca’s love interest.

Showrunner Jess Brownell told Tudum, “It feels groundbreaking. Obviously, there are a lot of great shows that have depicted queer love. We’re not the first by any means,” she added, “But to make an entire Bridgerton season about a sapphic relationship feels huge.”

Brownell said that the show allows people to see themselves represented, to dream and to imagine themselves in these roles.

“It never felt right to not be inclusive of queer love as well within that fantasy,” she said.

Dodd told Tudum that she is both excited and panicked and is glad that season 5 will shine a light on a queer relationship.

“[Those love stories] have traditionally been excluded from things like period dramas — and queer people did exist, have always existed, and will always exist,” Dodd said.

Baduza added: “What we really want to achieve is giving a realistic view of queer love onscreen and [giving them] a happily ever after. I think [this] is really important for a lot of the queer community to see onscreen, to know that it can work out, and that they deserve to also feel love.”

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