Nicola Coughlan is shutting down this popular Bridgerton season 4 theory

Nicola Coughlan has shut a Bridgerton season 4 fan theory down in the space of one Instagram comment.

The actress — who plays Penelope Featherington, AKA Lady Whistledown, on the series — recently posted a slideshow of pictures from the set of season 3 on Instagram, in anticipation of part 2 being released later this month.

While there was a lot to see in the entire slideshow, it's the last picture that made fans lose their minds this time. It's a photo Nicola took of her costar Luke Newton (Colin Bridgerton) reading a script in a makeup trailer. Behind him is a mirror with a post-it marked "Sophie" on it.

Readers of the Bridgerton book series by Julia Quinn immediately picked up on this, because they've all been hoping for a while that a character named Sophie Beckett — who becomes Benedict Bridgerton's love interest in the books — will be introduced in the TV version ASAP, either towards the end of season 3, or in season 4.

But sadly, the very reasonable Nicola didn't want to get fans' hopes up, so when one person commented: "SOPHIE?!?" she quickly answered: "lolll no that’s @sophie.burton.33’s makeup station!!"

Obviously, we're giving massive props to Nic for not giving us false hopes, but still, we hope this doesn't mean Sophie is out of the picture entirely. Fingers crossed!

Season 3 revolves around Penelope and Colin's romance, and it's been absolutely lovely seeing Nicola and Luke's bond develop on and off-screen. Before you ask, no, they're not dating IRL, but they seem to be really close friends.

For example, Luke delighted fans this week when he shared a video of himself pranking Nic, by jumping up from under a chair in her makeup trailer as she walked in.

The actor called it "payback," as Nicola had previously pranked him by getting the show's crew to play music from Luke's former boy band while filming a scene instead of the song they were meant to dance to, as both of them recounted in an interview with People. That's classic.