Regé-Jean Page has responded to recent rumours that his Duke of Hastings could be set to return to Netflix ’s Bridgerton for its upcoming third season.
The Duke of Hastings' love story with Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) was a hit with Netflix viewers and proved to be a break-out role for Regé-Jean.
He subsequently chose to pursue other projects and was written out of the second series, which focused on the romance between Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley).
Yet the Netflix show was reportedly holding early talks with Regé-Jean to see if he could return for the next series.
"Rege-Jean was always very open about his intention to quit the show after the first season and to move on to other projects. But recently there has been a dialogue between him and the show’s bosses," a source told The Sun.
"Nothing has been formally agreed yet, but watch this space. Things are very up in the air at the moment, but this will be an exciting year for Rege, without a doubt."
Yet the actor subsequently took to his Instagram to respond to the rumours alongside a photo of himself and former co-star Jonathan Bailey in Milan.
Directly referring to the reports of a comeback, Regé-Jean gave Bridgerton fans news many may not be happy to hear.
“The boys are back in town,” he wrote. “(No, I’m not going back to the show btw – the papers made that one up.)
“But we had the best, and most stylish, catch up I’ve had in a while over some truly excellent Italian coffee and sunshine.”
This comes after Regé-Jean admitted Bridgerton fans lashed out when he was cast as the Duke.
"I’m going to shout out [the book’s] Brazilian fans specifically, because they had my back before anyone else did,” he said, "When everyone else was still passive aggressively getting all knotted up because I didn’t have blue eyes, the Brazilians were there for me."
Bridgerton creator Shonda Rhimes explained that there was no way to bring him into the show if they were to follow the story of the books.
"I was just excited about the idea of being able to tell a complete romantic tale that has an end, where you're not finding 14 other reasons why the couple can't be together or frankly having Regé stand in the background of somebody else's romance. That doesn't make sense.," Shonda explained to the Hollywood Reporter.
"Those books really dictated what we did, and we want talent to have an amazing experience and tell the story they're telling authentically, not, 'Oh, can you just come over here and do this little thing?"
