Phoebe Dynevor made it clear that she wouldn’t be in Bridgerton Season 3. That doesn’t mean the show couldn’t have mentioned Daphne and Simon.
Showrunner Jess Brownell shared that there was a script written where Daphne and Simon were mentioned. At one point, they were supposed to be at the wedding, but not shown on screen. In another version, Daphne was pregnant again and couldn’t be at the wedding of her brother Colin and his love Penelope.
In the end, everyone decided that things got “a little wonky.” Everything was taken out, and Daphne and Simon simply weren’t mentioned. This was a huge mistake, and I say that as a fan of The Last Kingdom where the lack of mentioning a character ended up as a running joke.
Mentioning a character doesn’t take away from other Bridgerton stories
The series could have easily opted to write in that Daphne couldn’t make it due to pregnancy. It would have been a realistic reason not to have her there. She could have even gone into labor, and Simon could have been waiting on the other side of the door for his child to come into the world. This would have easily created a reason for the two not to be at this wedding.
Without a mention of Daphne and Simon, it’s like the series has completely forgotten about them. Daphne wouldn’t have missed the wedding of her brother if she could have made it.
I get why not to say that Daphne and Simon are around but they’re off-screen. That does get annoying and it doesn’t always make sense. But a line about Daphne being pregnant would have been absolutely fine. This tells us that Daphne had to miss it for circumstances out of her control, and we could have all accepted that. It’s a reminder of the time—childbirth was dangerous!
I still remember when The Last Kingdom Season 4 didn’t once mention Uhtred’s second son. The showrunners said there wasn’t time, which didn’t make much sense for one line. It led to a running joke of this missing son, and that was then written into the Season 5 finale and then into the movie. The creator and writers leaned into this mistake and gave fans something positive.
Brownell needs to do the same with Bridgerton. Just give us a quick update. It’s necessary for TV shows, just like it would be for the books.