Ahead of Bridgerton Season 4's release, fans of the fictional period piece have flooded the internet with complaints about the unequal treatment of the show's cast members.
On Friday, January 2, Netflix released a short festive promo clip of the cast, which showed the actors sharing their characters' New Year's resolutions.
The video featured the Bridgerton siblings, without fans' favourite Jonathan Bailey, who plays Viscount Anthony, their mother Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) and the latest edition in the Bridgerton family, Penelope, aka Lady Whistledown, played by Nicola Coughlan.
Interestingly, the clip did not feature the main female lead of the season, Yerin Ha, the love interest of Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson), which opened a debate about Bridgerton's treatment of their POC cast members.
Fans reaction to the lack of Yerin Ha in the promos:
Sharing a screenshot of the video, one fan on X penned, "for a show that built its self on the back of a black man and prides itself for it 'color blind regency fantasy' and diversity their promos sure are White as hell."
The social media post has garnered 1.7 million views.
Another X post read, "Mind you..... their newly casted east Asian actresses have yet to be promoted and their East Asian lead is nowhere to be found in this promo....I mean it comes to a point."
"I just don't get what gotten into their heads and decided to just...do the promo with just the white people. Racist asf," a third post noted.
"Yerin Ha as the LEAD has yet to have a magazine photoshoot and yet at least three supporting characters have had a magazine cover already before the lead? Hmm...," another post highlighted.
"I'm glad Regè left bc he would've just been overlooked the way EVERY poc in this show is," a tweet read, referring to Regé-Jean Page, who played Simon Basset in the first season of Bridgerton and chose to leave the series after his character "one-season arc" came to a conclusion.
Moreover, Bridgerton's collab with Pandora was also under fire after snaps went viral of just Hannah Dodd and Claudia Jessie, with no signs of the Lady in the Silver, the main focus of the upcoming season.
Season 4 of Bridgerton is divided into two parts, with Part 1 available to stream on January 29, while the last four episodes that make up the second part will be released on February 26.
