Bridgerton season 1 blew audiences away. It was full of passion, lust, drama … and Regé-Jean Page.

Page was arguably the breakout star of the show (the diamond of the season, one might say), and once season 1 was finished, everyone was waiting with bated breath to see what his character Simon, Duke of Hastings might get up to in the next season. But then a bucket of cold water was thrown over their dreams, because an announcement came that Page would not be returning.

That announcement was written in character by Lady Whistledown and posted on the Bridgerton social media pages. And it kept things rather vague, saying simply, “We’ll miss Simon’s presence onscreen, but he will always be a part of the Bridgerton family.” Fans were cross, to put it mildly. What could have possibly happened behind the scenes to make Page not come back?

Page’s reasons for leaving the role

Hollywood gossip outlets insisted, based on shaky evidence, that Page’s departure was due to “creative differences” or “egos.” But the truth, unlike Bridgerton, is just rather ordinary. Page told all in a 2023 interview with Vanity Fair magazine. Basically, he’d signed on for one season and that was all he wanted to do.

“I signed up to do a job and I did the job and then I did some other jobs. That’s it. That’s the story. I wish it was more glamorous than that,” he said. “[After] we finished the story, the temptation would be to roll with the distractions and go, ‘Oh, well, the story went really well so we can kind of change this up and make some other stuff up, I guess.’ That was never what we’d signed up to do.”

So in other words, Page never planned to come back and was not tempted to change his mind because he felt it would affect the integrity of the story. And after watching subsequent seasons of Bridgerton, it’s hard to argue that he’s wrong. Season two focused on the romance between Anthony and Kate and there simply wasn’t going to be much room for Simon if those other characters were to be used to their full potential. Likewise, he couldn’t have appeared in season three without audiences potentially losing parts of other, just as beloved characters.

It may take hardcore Bridgerton fans a little longer to accept but really, Page made the right choice. It’s paid off for the show and it’s paid off for him too. He’s racking up one high-profile role after another, including 2023’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Recently he was cast in the Steven Soderbergh thriller Black Bag, and we’re certain to see more of him after that.