One thing I'll say is that the reaction to Nicola joining OMITB has been overwhelmingly positive from what I've seen.

Fans of the show are excited. Nicola fans are excited. Casual viewers are excited. People are excited about the cast. People are excited about the possibilities for her character. That's what I'm choosing to focus on

At the end of the day, Nicola booked a fantastic project with an incredible cast and that's a reason to celebrate. Sometimes I think we spend too much time talking about the handful of negative voices and not enough time appreciating how much genuine excitement and goodwill there is around her.

I appreciate you taking the time to explain where you're coming from.

Every community has people who create unnecessary drama, and I understand why that would be frustrating, especially when it overshadows good news for Nicola.

I guess where I differ is that I don't see those people as representative of the fandom as a whole. When I look around, I still see plenty of fans who are excited about Nicola's work, support her projects and genuinely enjoy being here.

I also agree that we shouldn't ignore problems when they exist. But I don't think the solution is to let the loudest and most negative people define the entire community either.

Her fandom is bigger than those of us mainly post about her. She is wide appeal.

I think this announcement was a good reminder that Nicola's audience is much bigger than any one fandom space.

The excitement is coming from all over the place. That's what makes me happy.

And the Simone fans being excited about them working together again has been really sweet to see too.

Apart from the odd account that’s just there for drama, I’ve only had good experiences with those who are genuine fans of Nicola. I find especially that those who discovered Nic from Derry Girls are the most chill and least interested in drama.

Initially the toxicity from Polin fans towards Nicola (as well as the never ending drama with other Bridgerton fans) turned me off the fandom as a whole for a long time. I think the issue has been Polin fans being willing to share their fandom spaces with toxic shippers. It was after blocking many of those accounts that I found the positive Polin accounts that are genuinely supportive towards Nicola and who love her for more than Penelope or a ship.

There are sometimes frustrations with Nic fans when Nicola or her loved ones are being hated on by supposed fans, but it’s not the focus. Majority of the content is on celebrating Nic’s projects and her.

That's been mostly my experience too.

Apart from a handful of "concerned" people already trying to calculate exactly how many minutes she'll be on screen, everyone I've seen is just excited...

The cast is incredible, the show is great, and we already know this is a guest role.

We are happy because Nicola keeps doing what she's always done: taking on interesting projects, working with talented people, trying new things and building connections across the industry.

I’m so excited that she will be in a show along side some acting legends!

It's a pattern at this point.

I'm absolutely thrilled for her. Excited for Nicola, excited for the cast, excited to see what role she'll be playing and excited to watch her in a completely new project.

And can you blame me? Us? She's joining a fantastic show alongside some incredible actors.

That's a fair point. Some accounts didn't disappear because they stopped supporting Nicola. They were targeted, harassed, mass reported by jealous angry haters.

Online fandom spaces are only one small part of Nicola's actual fanbase.

There are plenty of people who like Nicola, support her work, watch her projects and never get involved in fandom politics at all.

I also think a loud group can sometimes create the illusion that they represent everyone when they really don't.

I completely agree with this.

At some point I realized that my fandom experience is largely my responsibility. A lot of fandom spaces are what you make of them.

Life is stressful enough without voluntarily reading takes that annoy me (The mute and block buttons are there for a reason).

My feed is mostly Nicola news, project updates, people celebrating her work and fans being excited about what she's doing next.

The drama never completely disappears, but you don't have to give it front-row seats in your fandom experience.

For what I've seen Nicola's subreddit it's generally been focused on Nicola's work, projects and news.

Experiences can vary a lot depending on where you spend your time online. Two people can have completely different experiences of the same fandom.

And I do think sometimes people take a bad experience with one person or one group and then project that onto an entire fandom space.

That's pretty much how I see it too.

I don't want to dismiss anyone's experience because if someone's corner of fandom has become negative, I completely understand why they'd feel frustrated.

But I do think a lot depends on who you're following and where you're spending your time online. My experience has been very different. I see plenty of active Nicola fans who are excited about her projects, celebrate her successes and are interested in her as an actor rather than just one role, one ship or one moment in her career.

And I think that's a sign of a healthy fandom. Nicola's career keeps growing, she's attracting new audiences through different projects, and people are sticking around because they enjoy her work.

I do understand what you're saying, and I don't doubt that some people have stepped away because they're tired of drama. That's happened in pretty much every fandom I've ever been part of.

I just don't know if I agree that it means the Nicola fandom itself is dying.

Honestly, I think a lot depends on what corner of the internet you're in and who you're following. My experience has been pretty different. Most of the Nicola fans I interact with are active, excited about her projects and having a great time.

That's not to say toxic people don't exist, they absolutely do. But I've found that sometimes a good timeline cleanse makes a bigger difference than people realize.

And I also don't think one subreddit, one platform or one fandom space can really measure Nicola's fanbase as a whole. Every new project seems to bring in new people, which feels pretty healthy to me.

She filmed 2 x hour long episodes of ‘I am Helen’ in 3-weeks. OMITB is a large ensemble cast so she possibly only filmed for 2-4 weeks.

Agree

From what I've seen, filming was scheduled to start around May 19. I've seen someone saying production runs through July and others saying August, so I'm not entirely sure of the exact timeline 🤷‍♀️

That's why I'm curious. If Nicola's role isn't huge, there's a chance she could have filmed her scenes already even if the overall production is still going.

But honestly, we're all just guessing at this point

I have no actual information, so this is just my interpretation. But the reason I think she may have already filmed is that caption.

"The nicest summer job I've ever had" sounds like someone looking back on an experience rather than someone who's still in the middle of it.

Of course I could be completely wrong, but that's what jumped out at me.

And honestly, if she has already wrapped her part, it would explain why she's been so quiet lately.

That's fair, anon!

Personally, I don't think this is the mystery project she hinted at either. This feels like something different to me.

That said, I'm absolutely thrilled about it because I love the show and the cast is ridiculous in the best possible way.

As for the project... let's just say I have a very specific one in mind and until that cast gets announced, I'm choosing to remain delusionally optimistic....

Who’s leaving? I think Nicola just keeps getting more fans, they just aren’t all associated with Bridgeton, and they aren’t all online and in fandom spaces. There is a Nicola sub that’s pretty niche, but it seems to get people outside the Polin fandom which I take as a good sign because they aren’t focused on her as part of a ship but are focused on her as an actor. And luckily since she’s busy there are lots of new projects to celebrate and not just rehashing scenes from previous years and trying to keep the past relevant since there is other stuff to focus on, in addition to talking about her various other projects from earlier in her career.

Nicola's career is bigger than any one fandom space at this point. Every new project brings in new people who know her from something completely different, and I think that's a really good thing.

We, the fans who genuinely enjoy her work, her choices and watching her career grow aren't going anywhere.