Netflix has officially locked in Sex Education star Simone Ashley to play Anthony Bridgerton’s love interest in season 2 of the wildly popular (and horny) series. KEEN, KEEN, KEEN.
Industry publication Deadline scooped the exclusive, revealing that Simone Ashley will star as Kate Sharma (Kate Sheffield in the novels), Anthony Bridgerton’s (Jonathan Bailey) love interest.
Season 2 of the hit series is based on the second novel in Julia Quinn‘s books about the Bridgerton siblings. It focuses on Anthony as he attempts to settle down and find a wife. He doesn’t want to marry for love though, he thinks that’s too complicated. So he just wants to find someone to, uh, be mates with and have one or two kids with.
Cast your minds back to the end of season 1 and you’ll remember Anthony went on a whole spiel about it.
“I’ve finally determined the difficulty: love itself,” Anthony told his family.
“Removing it from all romantic relations shall make me all the better for it. No more distractions from responsibility or being waylaid from the sensible path.”
Alrighty-roo.
Kate, meanwhile, is newly arrived in London and is not a fan of Anthony’s horny ways (she likes to read Lady Whistledown’s column). Kate’s witty, headstrong, and very direct with people she doesn’t like, so she isn’t exactly Anthony’s biggest fan when he decides to court her younger sister Edwina.
As an aside, you can read my review of the second book, The Viscount Who Loved Me, right here.
According to Deadline, Netflix imagined Kate as a woman of Indian descent, once again breaking free from the source material. Absolutely here for this casting, tell ya what.
Although season 1 focused on Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page), it did include snippets of the other Bridgerton siblings. So here’s hoping season 2 follows suit and gives us a good look at Daphne and Simon and their happily ever after.
You can catch Bridgerton on Netflix now, although if you’re keen for new Regé-Jean Page content, he’s hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend. I expect nothing but spicy Bridgerton sketches.
