Dearest gentle reader, the mystery surrounding a certain gentleman shall be revealed henceforth.
Hugh Sachs, who plays an older version of Brimsley in Queen Charlotte, recently explained to Vulture why an older version of Reynolds didn’t appear in the Bridgerton spinoff — and it’s pretty sad.
Shonda Rimes’ prequel to her Netflix smash hit has not one, but two great love stories: one centered around the titular Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio and Golda Rosheuvel) and King George (Corey Mylchreest and James Fleet), and another that is the franchise’s first prominent queer romance, between the royal footmen Brimsley and Reynolds.
In the show, young versions of Brimsley and Reynolds are portrayed by Sam Clemmett and Freddie Dennis, respectively. But only the older version of Brimsley appears in the spinoff.
The absence of an older Reynolds becomes overwhelmingly apparent in the show’s final episode when younger versions of the pair are seen dancing together, and then the scene cuts to an older version of Brimsley dancing alone.
This led viewers to assume Reynolds had died, but according to Hugh, that isn’t the case.
“There was a scene that we didn’t film, because it was cut, where I was going to meet the older Reynolds,” he told Vulture. “He was the love of his life, and for whatever reason, they could not stay together. So when they would pass each other in the passageway in the deleted scene, it wasn’t a toxic moment.”
Although Queen Charlotte does explain why race is not a factor in the Regency-era Bridgerton-verse, Hugh explained that the culture that exists in the show doesn’t seem as progressive when it comes to LGTBQ+ acceptance.
“Because of the world they inhabited, it was still a hangable offence to be gay,” Hugh told Vulture, saying that a long-lasting romance between the two men “was just not possible”.
Brimsley and Reynolds weren’t the first queer characters to be featured in the Bridgerton universe.
The first season of Bridgerton featured aristocratic artist Henry Granville’s (Julian Ovenden) tortured love story with Lord Wetherby (Ned Porteous). But Brimsley and Reynolds were the first gay characters to have a more fleshed-out love story.
“I’m filled with a sense of pride to bring the first central LGBTQ+ storyline to this incredibly rich and diverse world,” Freddie Dennis, who played young Reynolds, told Netflix’s website Tudum. “I hope that fans love the storyline as much as Sam and I loved telling it.”
“We wanted the relationship to have layers and be more than just lust,” Freddie added. “The conversations that we had with [director and executive producer] Tom Verica, in particular, were to do with love and affection and how much these two mean to each other and what they represent to each other.”