In the grand Cousin Matthew tradition of charismatic and good-looking men getting too famous for their own ensemble soap operas about rich English people, Regé-Jean Page, who plays Simon Basset on Netflix’s Bridgerton will not be returning for season two.
While the world will miss the time we spent with Page’s shirtless torso and remain forever grateful for the ladder pussy-eating scene, among myriad others, Page is leaving our small screens for the big one, where his impossibly symmetrical face will be bigger, and thus easier to admire. As sources who have read the books have informed me, in the book series, Simon doesn’t really factor into the next installments, so it makes sense that Page would want more screen time as his star is on the rise.
Next up, he’s got feature films with not one, but two famous good-looking Chrises: Chris Pine in the forthcoming Dungeons and Dragons film and Chris Evans in a Russo brothers film called The Gray Man. There is also talk that Page could be the next James Bond, a casting choice 100 percent of Jezebel staffers endorse wholeheartedly.
But though this pivot is good for Page and probably for movies, between this, no plans for a Season 6 of Poldark, and the stubborn refusal of the men from All Creatures Great and Small to take their tops off, I am incredibly concerned for the future of shirtlessness in the realm of horny English dramas.