Lady Esther Babington received her happy ending in the Sanditon Season 2 finale, and it turns out that ending was final, as the character will not be back for the upcoming third season.
As reported by TVLine, Charlotte Spencer, who played Esther on the PBS period drama, will not be returning for Season 3. The news comes after the actress joined the cast of the new BBC/Paramount+ drama series The Gold.
Speaking to Decider, Sanditon showrunner Justin Young said, “I think where we leave [Esther] at the end of Season 2, she’s got everything she’s ever wanted. She’s happy, married, and now she has a child that she adores, so I think that’s the end of Esther’s story as far as I’m concerned.”
He continued: “I’ve always said with respect to this show, the way we built it is that, like a novel. We have to honor that characters have finite stories.”
Sanditon premiered in August 2019 and is based on an unfinished manuscript by Jane Austen. Set during the Regency era, the story follows Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams), a naive young woman who arrives in the new seaside resort of Sanditon and must learn to navigate its scheming and ambitious inhabitants.
The series was canceled by ITV in 2019, ahead of its U.S. premiere; however, with the help of PBS and a fan campaign, it was able to fundraise enough money to continue the series. However, three of the original cast members from Season 1, Theo James, Mark Stanley, and Leo Suter, did not return, as all moved on to other projects.
In addition to her work on Sanditon, Spencer is known for playing the female lead in the British supernatural series The Living and the Dead. Her other credits include Line of Duty, Baghdad Central, and Ted Lasso.
Sanditon, Season 3, Coming 2023, PBS Masterpiece