Bridgerton’s Luke Newton on Colin and Penelope’s Slow-Burn Romance

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Luke Newton is honestly glad everyone knows that Penelope and Colin end up together in the Bridgerton books.

"It's actually quite nice as an actor," he tells Town & Country over Zoom, "cause it means that I'm not worried about spoiling anything. I haven't got to worry too much about what I say." The spoiler, of course, is that in book four of Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series—Romancing Mister Bridgerton—Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington fall in love.

"What's been really cool is that we've seen their relationship develop and grow through the whole of two seasons," Newton says. Penelope, played by Nicola Coughlan, has been pining for Colin since the beginning of the series—and at the Featherington ball, they finally dance together. Viewers feel Penelope's hopes rising that Colin will see her as more than a friend.

Yet, heartbreak strikes in some of the final moments of the season: Penelope overhears a friend ask Colin if he's courting her, and, he replies, "Are you mad? I would never dream of courting Penelope Featherington. Not in your wildest fantasies." The group all laughs, and Penelope runs off, sobbing. Viewers' hearts hurt for Penelope in that scene—and Newton's does too, calling the comment a "difficult one to defend."

Newton says of that moment, "Feeling quite loyal to Colin, I wanna be able to justify his actions, but it's really difficult in that particular scene."

"I don't think he means it in a horrible way," he continues, "but also I think he does see her as a friend. He sees her as this best friend that he's had growing up. So he's clouded by that, and it comes out in the wrong way. He wants to say 'she's my best friend,' but he doesn't wanna play that in front of the boys."

If he had to explain why Colin said what he said, Newton doesn't think that it was due to Colin denying burgeoning feelings for Penelope; rather, the confidence he was feeling from exposing Lord Featherington's scam and the bravado from his world travels.

"Part of the blame goes to the fact he feels on cloud nine; he feels like he's saved the day, essentially, and it's the first time that he's had some sort of purpose and been able to contribute to helping someone. Deep down, he's quite a kind person, so he enjoys that rewarding feeling of being nice and kind and helping someone," he says. "Also, he's full of bravado from his trip, he's been traveling with lots of young men that are of the same age, and they would have conversations like that most evenings. There's a bit of pretense there."

Colin will have to let go of that bravado if he wants to find love—but is unclear when we will see that storyline play out. "If plans go as they are, in terms of book by book," Newton says, "I'll have another one to focus on [before taking the lead] and hopefully the relationship will grow further. I'll get to see Luke Thompson take the stage and I'll be excited for that." (Book three, An Offer from a Gentleman, follows Benedict's love story, which would make actor Luke Thompson the romantic lead for season three of Bridgerton.)

The news of Bridgerton's renewal is "such a treat." Newton has never been in that position before as an actor—the comfort of knowing he has a job for the next two years. (At the very least—Shonda Rhimes has said she wants to do eight seasons for the eight books.) Stability is the one thing "you don't normally have," so Newton calls working on Bridgerton, his breakout role, "such a joy" and a "rarity."

Of Penelope and Colin's love story playing out on screen, Newton says, "I still can't quite believe it's going to happen," calling the prospect of being one of the romantic leads "overwhelming." (Coughlan, too, told the New York Times she feels "terrified" and it will be a "massive challenge" for her.) Yet, despite any nerves, Newton recalls, "It was really exciting to be able to ring my mum and say, 'We're gonna get to my story at some point.' She's over the moon, as well, obviously."

That makes Colin and Penelope the only Bridgerton couple to get multiple seasons of character building before the viewers are treated to their romance. And Newton doesn't take that for granted. "It was really cool to see the scale of different relationships [on Bridgerton] and how they develop." In seasons one and two, he says, "You see the heated relationship blossom very quickly" between Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon (Regé-Jean Page), and Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate (Simone Ashley). He continues, it's taken Colin and Penelope "a really long time for them to get where they are—which most people would consider still just a friendship."

Like all of us, he's eagerly waiting to find out what will happen next, but unlike Lady Whistledown, he's not a very good gossip. Coughlan, though, recently revealed she practiced eavesdropping in her downtime, a habit she's been unable to break.

"I'm not very good at finding that kind of stuff out," Newton jokes, talking about spoilers or hints about what's to come in future seasons. "There's certain people on set that I go to that I know are really good at finding out gossip, like Jonny [Bailey] and Nicola [Coughlan] are both really good at just finding stuff out. I sit next to Nicola in the makeup chair, so I'm like 'Got any goss? Has there been anything said about next year?'"

So has he heard anything juicy about the next two seasons?

"No," he says with a disappointed sigh. "I've got nothing."

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