Dearest Gentle Reader… the Ton just met its cruelest villains yet.

The official Bridgerton Season 4 trailer dropped at midnight and Lady Araminta Gun + her venomous daughters have already made half the Bridgertons bleed. One line from Araminta has the entire internet screaming: “You were born to scrub floors… and you’ll die scrubbing them.” Sophie’s stepmother just declared war on love itself. Click before Whistledown spoils the rest. 👑🔥

The Ton has a new queen — and she makes Cressida Cowper look like a wallflower.

Netflix detonated the official Bridgerton Season 4 trailer at the stroke of midnight, and within hours #LadyGun and #AramintaSupremacy were trending worldwide. Clocking in at a breathless 2:43, the footage finally introduces the formidable Gun family: twice-widowed Lady Araminta Gun (Katie Leung), eldest daughter Rosamund (Michelle Mao), and reluctant younger Posy (Isabella Wei) — the trio poised to become the most hated (and most obsessed-over) villains since the Featheringtons schemed their way into Season 1.

But the real scream echoing across ballrooms and group chats? The trailer’s money shot: Araminta hissing, “You were born to scrub floors… and you’ll die scrubbing them,” as she rips Sophie Baek’s silver glove in half — the very glove Benedict has carried like a holy relic since the masquerade. Cue 12 million YouTube views in six hours and TikTok stitches that could circle the globe.

Showrunner Jess Brownell, fresh off a standing ovation at a London fan event, told press: “We wanted a villain who scares even Lady Whistledown. Araminta Gun is that woman.”

The Guns Storm Mayfair: Cruelty in Couture

Forget the gentle menace of Lord Featherington or the petty barbs of Cressida — the Guns arrive with generational wealth, zero conscience, and a hatred for Cinderella stories. The trailer opens on their cavernous Grosvenor Square mansion, all black marble and crimson drapery, as Araminta instructs her daughters: “One of you will marry a title this season, or I will bury the other in debtor’s prison.”

Katie Leung — yes, Cho Chang grown into a deliciously terrifying ice empress — delivers every line like a dagger. A single raised eyebrow from her has already spawned thousands of reaction GIFs captioned “When your boss schedules a 9 a.m. meeting.” Rosamund, the elder daughter, smirks with the confidence of someone who’s never heard the word no; Posy, wide-eyed and trembling, looks like she’s two seconds from defecting to the Bridgerton side.

Early fan theories exploded when a 0.3-second flash shows Posy secretly passing Sophie a key — book readers know Posy eventually becomes Sophie’s only ally, but the show appears to be accelerating that redemption. “Posy isn’t evil,” Isabella Wei hinted to Vogue. “She’s just terrified of becoming her mother.”

Sophie Baek vs. The Woman Who Owns Her

Yerin Ha’s Sophie Baek — the illegitimate daughter Araminta has enslaved as an unpaid maid since childhood — is finally revealed in full. The trailer gives us three money shots:

Sophie, disguised as the “Lady in Silver,” dancing with Benedict at Violet’s masquerade, midnight chiming as she flees.
Sophie on her knees scrubbing the Guns’ entrance hall while Rosamund “accidentally” spills wine across the marble.
Sophie in shackles (yes, literal shackles) inside Newgate after Araminta frames her for theft.

Ha, in her first major English-language role, told Harper’s Bazaar: “Playing Sophie is playing survival. Every smile she gives is a weapon.” The internet has already crowned her the “people’s princess,” with #FreeSophie trending alongside edits set to Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do.”

Benedict’s Breaking Point

Luke Thompson’s Benedict — once the carefree and quill-stained — is unrecognizable in the trailer. We see him:

Punching a wall when he discovers Sophie is the housemaid he’s fallen for.
Threatening Lord Remington (a slimy suitor Araminta is forcing on Rosamund) with: “Touch her again and you’ll never touch anything again.”
Storming Newgate prison in the rain, screaming Sophie’s name as guards drag him away.

Thompson, speaking to GQ, admitted: “Benedict has never been violent. Seeing him lose control because someone hurt Sophie… that’s new territory.”

The Ton Reacts — and Divides

The trailer intercuts reactions from the Bridgerton ensemble:

Violet (Ruth Gemmell) gasping, “That woman is a monster.”
Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) snarling, “No one threatens a guest under my roof.”
Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) furiously scribbling the fastest Whistledown column of her life.
Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) smirking behind her fan: “Finally — a worthy adversary.”

Even Eloise (Claudia Jessie), visiting from Scotland, gets a killer line: “If Araminta wants a war, she’ll give her one — with words sharper than any blade.”

Easter Eggs Only Book Readers Caught

Eagle-eyed fans spotted:

A quick shot of Araminta burning Sophie’s late father’s will — confirming she stole Sophie’s inheritance.
Benedict sketching Sophie’s face obsessively, just like in An Offer from a Gentleman.
The prison guard who takes pity on Sophie? Played by none other than Tom Verica (the show’s executive producer) in a cheeky cameo.

The Internet Has Already Chosen Sides

Within minutes of the trailer dropping:

#TeamSophie vs #TeamAraminta became a bloodbath on X.
A viral sound of Araminta’s “scrub floors” line has 4.2 million uses on TikTok.
Katie Leung posted a single black heart emoji on Instagram — and gained 300k followers overnight.

One viral tweet summed it up: “Bridgerton: “Lady Danbury said ‘I am a woman of independent means.’ Lady Araminta Gun said ‘Hold my arsenic.’”

What Happens Next?

The trailer ends on a gut-punch: Benedict cradling a bloodied Sophie in the prison infirmary as Araminta’s voiceover purrs, “Love stories are for ladies. You, my dear, are no lady.” Smash to black. Release date card: May 14, 2026 — Part 1.

Brownell promises the season is split into two drops again, with Part 2 arriving June 18. “Part 1 is the cage,” she teased. “Part 2 is the moment Sophie burns it down.”

Dearest reader, the gloves are off — and this time they’re soaked in blood, not champagne.

Who are you betting on: the girl with nothing but hope… or the woman who owns half of Mayfair?

Stream the trailer on Netflix now. The Ton will never be the same.