Nicola Coughlan’s Surprising Admission About Bridgerton Season Five Is Going Viral

• Nicola Coughlan has confirmed that she will play a reduced role in Bridgerton season five, announcing on Dish from Waitrose that she "won't be in it very much".
• "I have it so good now ’cause I come in for a few days and I’m like, ‘Yay! How is everyone? I’ll see you in two months. Bye!'," admitted Coughlan, who stars in the series as Penelope Featherington. "They’re working super, super hard."
• Bridgerton season five is predicted for release in 2027.

Bridgerton season five is officially in production, with filming for the Netflix show's highly-anticipated next instalment underway. And from predicted release dates to new cast additions, the high profile project has been going viral.

The Regency drama's fifth instalment will adapt When He Was Wicked, the sixth novel from Julia Quinn's collection, starring Hannah Dodd as Francesca Bridgerton and Masali Baduza as Michaela Stirling.

As always, the new season will also see the return of the wider ensemble cast, with Jonathan Bailey, Simone Ashley, Luke Thompson, Yerin Ha and Claudia Jessie among those returning as the Bridgerton family.

Also joining them will be Nicola Coughlan, the undoubted star of the series, playing Penelope Featherington, aka gossip columnist Lady Whistledown.

However, in a recent interview, Coughlan admitted that she will be playing a reduced role in season five, with the 39-year-old busy across multiple projects.

In 2026 alone, Coughlan has starred in The Magic Faraway Tree, GOAT and Big Mood season two, even hosting Saturday Night Live UK last week.

And during her appearance on Dish from Waitrose, she confirmed that she will subsequently be taking a step back in Bridgerton.

"Season five has started filming already, so I won’t be in it very much. But I'm always happy to come back," Coughlan told hosts Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett.

"I have it so good now ’cause I come in for a few days and I’m like, ‘Yay! How is everyone? I’ll see you in two months. Bye!'," she explained. "They’re working super, super hard and I’m just like coming back. It’s lovely."

Coughlan is not the only star to move into more of a background role, with Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley scaling back their screen time while remaining a constant in the Bridgerton universe.

"I think [Bailey] set a great example, of I guess for a better word, the loyalty to the show," Ashley explained recently during her appearance on The Louis Theroux Podcast.

"It is a show about family and returning home and returning to the family and I think a lot of people follow that suit," she continued. "I particularly learned a lot from that example. And now when we go back, there is that environment of coming home and feeling like we're part of a family.

"I can only comment on what me and Johnny have done," she added. "And that is, we just really make sure that our schedules can just make it work."

There is not yet an official release date for Bridgerton season five, but we will continue to update this story.