Bridgerton and Period Drama Fandom’s Enduring Racism Problem
Complaints about historical accuracy and acting quality are often dog-whistles: some fans only want to see white actors—and white history—on screen.
The first season of Bridgerton made a massive splash at the end of 2020. Fans had waited years for that kind of big-budget historical romance series, and posters and trailers featuring Regé-Jean Page, who would play love interest Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, made millions swoon in anticipation.
But while many people loved that Page was moving from overlooked actor to leading man, there was immediate backlash—because Simon in the Bridgerton books is white, and Page is Black. To protest his casting, racists created the trending hashtag #NotMyDuke, insisting Simon should be played by a white actor. Netflix didn’t acknowledge the racist responses: Page’s interviews and Netflix PR focused on the positives of racial diversity on Bridgerton before and after the premiere in December 2020. This pattern set the tone for future incidents to escalate in severity.
A Netflix adaptation of eight romance novels by Julia Quinn, the show follows the Bridgerton siblings in a fictionalized rendition of the Regency Era as they find romance and secure marriages to continue the family fortune. The Bridgertons are all played by white actors in the television series, while several of the love interests and supporting characters are played by Black, South Asian and East Asian actors.
Partly because of the scale of Netflix, the Bridgerton fandom is massive, and fan discussions frequently escalate to arguments over favorite characters, actors, and relationships. There are divides between fans who have read the original novels and don’t want the television canon changing plot lines; fans who are OK with the television canon differing from novel canon; and fans who have only watched the television series and do not care about the novels. The global nature of the fandom often means fans are bringing their own cultural, religious, ethnic/racial, and gender/sexuality biases to their interpretations of Bridgerton canon. This creates a perfect storm for flame wars and harassment—which often centers on the racebent cast.
Some of the racism in the fandom is coded—but plenty of it is overt. Take, for example, a fan’s now-deleted Tweet about a Season 3 promotional image:
