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It’s Benedict Bridgerton’s time to shine. The Netflix romance has announced a lead for Season 4, and it is finally time for the second oldest Bridgerton sibling to find love. If Bridgerton author Julia Quinn has any say in it, that love will look very much like in the books. But who does Benedict end up with in Bridgerton Season 4?

Who Does Benedict End Up With in Bridgerton Season 4?

Unlike in the book, show Benedict has been confirmed as pansexual. That means that fans had no certainty that he would indeed end up with his love interest from the third book in the Bridgerton series, An Offer from a Gentleman, named Sophie Beckett. Author Julia Quinn has seemingly laid those fears to rest by posting the Season 4 announcement on her Instagram with the caption “Dearest Gentle Viewer …It’s Benophie time!!”

Benophie is, of course, the ship name for Benedict and Sophie Beckett, Benedict’s love interest in the book. That seems a pretty clear indication that even though we saw Benedict explore his sexuality in Season 3, he will indeed go on to meet Sophie, his Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade and his story will follow the same beats as it does in the book.

There had been some question about whether this would be true, just as there had been some question about whether Season 4 would even have Benedict as the lead. If the show had followed the books, Benedict would have been the Season 3 lead. The show, however, chose to skip Benedict and tell Colin’s love story with Penelope Featherington first, even though Colin is younger than Benedict.

Bridgerton has also deviated from the books in major ways so far, including by changing the gender of Francesca’s love interest, Michael. In one of the final scenes of Season 3, the show introduced Michaela Stirling, John Stirling’s cousin. Book readers understood that to mean that Francesca’s second-chance love story, which takes place after her first husband, John, dies, would now involve Michaela, not Michael.

Francesca’s turn, however, doesn’t come until much later. First, comes Benedict, then Eloise, and the series ends with the two younger siblings, Hyacinth and finally Gregory. The show has so far only been renewed for four seasons, but Shondaland has stated an intention to adapt all eight books, and they have certainly laid the groundwork to do so.

Benedict’s book is, in many ways a Cinderella retelling. Benedict and Sophie, who for much of the book he only knows as “the Lady in Silver,” meet at a masquerade. He then meets the real Sophie but doesn’t know she is also the mysterious Lady in Silver, so he somehow ends up in a weird sort of love triangle between two women who are the same woman. Sophie is basically Cinderella, mistreated by her family and made to work as a maid. And, of course, there’s a happily ever after. This is a romance, after all.

Casting for Sophie Beckett has not yet been announced, but if Julia Quinn is to be believed, it’s coming …and soon.

Bridgerton is available to stream on Netflix.