Bridgerton season 4 has found its leading lady, and it’s a very surprising but promising choice. Netflix just announced that Yerin Ha has been cast as Sophie Baek, who will play Benedict Bridgerton’s lover in this chapter of the saga.

It’s an interesting turn of events, as the series changed the book character’s name from Sophie Beckett to Sophia Baek, a Korean surname to reflect Ha’s Korean heritage (she’s from Australia). The exact same thing happened in season 2, where the female leads changed their surnames to Sharma to reflect their Indian heritage, as the series aims to continually increase its diversity. In terms of how Ha got here, her previous role before that is even more interesting.

Ha’s biggest role to date was the role of Kwan in the Halo series, which lasted for two seasons. The series was cancelled by Paramount Plus and was ridiculed by Halo fans for two years. And in a series that most fans disliked, Kwan’s character was probably the the least-liked since she had no in-game counterpart, and although at the beginning of the series it seemed like she could have had an interesting relationship with Master Chief, they were immediately separated for practically the entire duration of the show and she was given very unrelated storylines. But none of this reflected Ha as an actress, the show’s script was always her main problem, and they put her in this unfortunate situation. And gave her this unfortunate haircut.

Ha will also appear in the upcoming series Dune Prophecy, playing “young Kasha,” although it’s not yet clear how long she’ll be in that series, and Bridgerton is a much, much bigger role. Starring in an entire season of one of Netflix’s most popular series is a big deal and a huge leap forward for her career.

Here’s how her character is described in the Netflix announcement:

“Yerin Ha (she/her) (Dune: Prophecy, Halo) will play Sophie Baek. Sophie Baek has been forced to spend much of her life working as a maid for high society’s most demanding employer. But resourceful Sophie always finds a way to survive her circumstances – which will change drastically after she disguises herself to attend Violet Bridgerton’s masquerade ball and meets Benedict Bridgerton.”

This season returns to book 3 of the Bridgerton series, having previously released book 4. It’s interesting to go to the book’s website because the three books covered have changed to their series characters on the cover. Book 3, the story of Benedict and Sophie, still has a blonde white girl on the cover, so that will surely change.

So I’m excited to see what Ha can do in this role compared to her unfortunate role in Halo, which wasn’t her fault. We’ll know more when Bridgerton returns for season 4, which probably won’t be until 2026 given its endlessly slow schedule.

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