If you thought we would be lucky to return to 19th-century New York sometime in 2027, the fact that we are now less than a month away from The Gilded Age is reason enough to celebrate. Yes, we will not even have to wait until Christmas: the series returns in early November, and HBO is slowly but surely putting Season 4 into full promotional mode. A new poster has arrived, along with new official photos, and none of them exactly delivers a major surprise. Quite the opposite: they seem to confirm much of what we had already discussed after the Season 3 finale and when the teaser was released. Still, together they help set the tone for this new chapter — and remind us that November is almost here.

Let’s talk about the poster and the art of keeping secrets. Last season, plenty of clues suggested the drama would turn its attention to Newport: Bertha and George were at the center, Agnes looked displeased, Ada smiled, Marian and Larry looked at each other, Gladys seemed miserable, and Peggy appeared with her mother at a ball. Every position — and every dress — eventually showed up during the season and gained meaning in context. Before that, in Season 2, everyone was gathered in the box of the new opera house; after all, the Opera War drove much of the historical conflict. This time, however, the message is quite different.

The new poster places Bertha Russell at the center, as expected, surrounded by Agnes, Ada, Peggy, Marian and George. They are framed inside a portrait, with the Statue of Liberty in the background, and that is no accident: the season takes place in the very year the monument was inaugurated. The statue, incidentally, has been part of the series since Season 1, when Raikes begins seducing Marian and takes her to see part of it, which remained on display in the park for years.

The chosen tagline, “A New Portrait of Power,” is more revealing than the image itself. Power has always been the great subject of The Gilded Age, but that power has changed hands, shape and even price over the course of the series. Now the official synopsis itself tells us that Bertha has succeeded in transforming society, but will have to deal with the cost of doing so.

The Gilded Age | A Full Guide (2022-2026)

The truth, however, is that we already knew most of this, and the new images follow exactly the same logic, with little or nothing beyond what the teaser had already shown. The behind-the-scenes photos shared on social media are actually more fun, because we get to see Oscar and Enid together — and we know there will be a wedding.

We have Jack, now wealthy but still using his imagination to create new things; Peggy and William looking happy, even if his mother is still unhappy about the relationship; George looking worried; Agnes carrying the same arrogance as always; and Ada smiling. They are pieces of a puzzle we already know, simply rearranged.

One image we had already seen in the teaser shows Bertha and George on the grand staircase of their New York home, separated by several steps and framed almost as if they belonged to different worlds. It may mean absolutely nothing about that specific scene, but it is difficult not to think about where we left their marriage. The Gilded Age has always liked to speak about power through drawing rooms, dresses, doors, tables and staircases. Sometimes the distance between two people says more than any line of dialogue.

Unfortunately, the distance between Larry and Marian worries me too, actually, perhaps even more than the distance between Bertha and George. Our young protagonists took forever to kiss and finally make their relationship official, but the conflict created to separate them was left far from resolved, even if the possibility of reconciliation remained open. We see them dancing and flirting at one of Oscar and Enid’s parties, which may not happen until the end of the season, but neither the synopsis nor any official or behind-the-scenes image suggests they will be as happy and settled as Peggy and William, for example.

Marian, as the synopsis tells us, creates a new path for herself, which suggests that she will continue to insist on her independence — something entirely consistent with what she has wanted from the beginning and something that did not seem likely to be a problem alongside Larry. In other words, we may have to watch the two remain friends before we can start thinking romantically about them again.

There is also the inevitable anachronism that comes with contemporary productions. As Agnes repeatedly warns Marian, she “needs” to marry for reasons of reputation and financial security, and she has already struck out three times: Raikes deceived her, and she broke off two engagements. We will see whether the consequences she feared — and that made her so insecure and impulsive in Season 3 — will actually come into play.

Season 4 will have eight episodes and premieres on November 1, but perhaps the most entertaining news of the past few days is not in the images at all. For years, we have joked that The Gilded Age has managed to hire practically all of Broadway. Apparently, someone decided to take that joke to its logical conclusion.

On November 6, Voices of The Gilded Age: The Christmas Album will be released, bringing together several members of the cast for a collection of Christmas classics and original songs.

Christine Baranski sings “We Need a Little Christmas.” Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy and Kelli O’Hara perform Stephen Sondheim’s “I Remember.” Denée Benton, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Laura Benanti, Adrienne Warren and several others also take part. The first single, “The World Needs Some Christmas,” performed by Ben Ahlers, has already been released.

And Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector? They do not sing. Instead, they recite “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” by Clement Clarke Moore, together. Which, when you think about it, feels entirely appropriate for George and Bertha Russell: even on a Christmas album, they have to preserve a certain level of grandeur.

The album arrives just a few days after the new season premieres, almost like an extension of the joke that has followed The Gilded Age from the beginning: how many Broadway actors can possibly fit into one series?

Apparently, quite a few.

Now all we need is a musical episode.