Bridgerton’s Katie Leung Teases Season 4's “Misunderstood” Villain

Though fans will need to wait a while yet for Bridgerton Season 4, Katie Leung has shared what to expect from her character, Lady Araminta Gun — aka, Sophie’s stepmother.

Leung’s character plays a key role in the upcoming installment of Netflix’s Regency romance. “Twice-married and twice-widowed,” her Bridgerton bio reads, “Araminta has two daughters debuting on the marriage mart this season and she’s feeling the pressure to get at least one of her girls married off.” (One of her daughters, Rosamund, “sets her sights on Benedict,” which will surely propel much of Season 4’s conflict.)

In Sophie and Benedict’s Bridgerton book, An Offer from a Gentleman, Araminta is essentially a villain — withholding her stepdaughter’s dowry and forcing her to live as an unpaid servant, subject to hostile treatment throughout her young life.

However, according to Leung, the screen version of Araminta may not be quite as awful.

“I would never call her evil because I adore her — I think she’s absolutely fabulous,” the Harry Potter alum recently told Refinery29. “She’s just heavily misunderstood.”

Netflix also describes Araminta as “fabulous, discerning, and blunt.” She’s someone who “does not respond well when anything — or anyone — threatens her standing in society.”

While Leung couldn’t tease too many details, her comments about Araminta’s character suggest she will have more layers on screen, potentially subverting the straightforward “villain” trope.

Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time Bridgerton has softened the edges of an antagonist from the books. For example, Bridgerton Season 3 humanized Cressida Cowper, highlighting her friendship with Eloise and worries about being a young woman on the marriage mart.

A Welcome Change

In her interview with Refinery29, Leung also celebrated the way Bridgerton Season 4 will showcase an Asian household on screen. “There isn’t enough representation where we center around a family of Asians,” she said, adding that “when it comes to a family, the push and pull, the dynamics of families are universal.”

Yerin Ha, who plays Sophie, has praised Bridgerton for embracing her Korean background — like changing her character’s last name from Beckett to Baek. “A name is the first bit of identity that you share with the world, and that’s why changing a name can be so powerful,” she previously told Netflix. “To make Sophie’s name fit someone who looks like me is really empowering.”