“Queen Charlotte” opens with a picturesque shot of a mansion in Germany. This is the house of the young Charlotte (India Amarteifio) and her family, the Mecklenburg-Strelitzes.
In fact, if fans look carefully at the flowers as the camera pans into the estate, the arrangement depicts the Mecklenburg-Strelitz family’s coat of arms. The Mecklenburg-Strelitzes were a real royal family from the 18th century.
The opening scene shows the stark difference between the English and Germans through costume.
Throughout “Queen Charlotte,” multiple characters express how Charlotte’s home country of Germany is more progressive and fanciful than England. This is presented clearly in the opening scene.
For starters, while the British royal staff is all white, Charlotte’s servants are of various racial ethnicities.
Even the black-and-gold costumes of the German servants are eyecatching, whereas the British servants, shown later in the episode, dress more modestly in blues and reds.
The title sequence of “Queen Charlotte” differs from the flagship show by showing an animated version of Charlotte on her journey to becoming queen.
What is interesting is that the animated Charlotte has short hair, but all the reflections and shadows of Charlotte depict her with large wigs.
This contrasts appears to hint at the journey that young Charlotte goes on to become the Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) we know and love.
In the series, young Charlotte (Amarteifio) also wears shorter wigs at first, but they grow in size as the story progresses.
Unlike “Bridgerton,” “Queen Charlotte” is set in two timelines. A past timeline exploring young Charlotte’s journey and a later timeline featuring the older Charlotte we know and love.
During a panel for the show at the Paley Center for Media earlier this month, director Tom Verica said that the series pays homage to “The Godfather Part II” when it transitions between the two timelines.
Verica said they looked at a lot of examples but were inspired by “The Godfather” scenes where shots dissolve into each other when the narrative moves from Michael Corleone to young Vito Corleone.
According to a press pack, director of photography Jefferey Jur also gave different atmospheric colors to each timeline to differentiate them. The earlier timeline has a green “dreamy and ethereal” look, while the later timeline is “cooler blue” since it is set in wintertime.
Fans of “Bridgerton” will know that Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews), the mysterious writer and narrator of both the flagship show and “Queen Charlotte,” is none other than our beloved wallflower, Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan).
However, while Lady Whistledown is still handing out her gossip sheets, we never see Penelope at work.
The closest nod to Penelope secretly being Whistledown is in episode five when adult Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) mentions that her daughters, Penelope and Eloise, are fighting, which is a callback to their big fight at the end of season two when Eloise discovered Penelope’s secret.
In “Queen Charlotte,” Lady Whistledown is narrating life outside of the social season and is focused completely on the royal family, which seems out of character for Penelope. This could mean that Penelope has thrown herself into her work after fighting with Eloise (Claudia Jessie).
In the later timeline in “Queen Charlotte,” the royal family is in crisis.
Charlotte, the Prince of Wales’s daughter and Queen Charlotte’s granddaughter, dies during childbirth, meaning that the family has no legitimate heir to the throne.
When Lady Whistledown discusses the death in her gossip sheet, she names Charlotte, “the People’s Princess,” a title which was given to another famous Princess of Wales, Diana.
This may be completely coincidental, but it is not the only reference to another monarch.
In episode six, when Queen Charlotte’s son Prince Edward (Jack Michael Stacey) and daughter-in-law Princess Victoria (Florence Dobson) tell her they are expecting a baby girl, the monarch replies: “A strong queen is just what this country needs.”
In real life, Edward and Victoria welcomed Queen Victoria, who was famous for being a powerful monarch and ruled with an iron fist.
According to the press notes, Charlotte wears a cape with her wedding dress as an homage to the “Scandal” character Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington), who was famous for wearing capes in the hit series.
“Scandal” was created by Shonda Rhimes, and several of the creatives involved in “Queen Charlotte,” including director Tom Verica and costume designer Lyn Paolo, worked on the series.
The press notes also say that young King George’s (Corey Mylchereest) outfits have modern influences and are inspired by Timothée Chalamet, Prince, and Mick Jagger.
A painting of Queen Victoria and other paintings created after Queen Charlotte’s death can be seen in the show.
After “Queen Charlotte” launched on Netflix, Dr. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, a fashion historian and journalist, pointed out in a Twitter thread that there are several paintings in the wedding dance scene in episode one that are from the wrong time period.
In the scene, we can see portraits of Queen Victoria, her husband Prince Albert, and one of Charlotte’s future daughters-in-law, Queen Adelaide.
This could just be a mistake but some fans have theorized that it foreshadows Charlotte’s legacy and contrasts with the older Charlotte’s obsession with trying to secure an heir since the royal family ends up in a good position anyway.
The main arc of “Queen Charlotte” follows young Charlotte and young Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas) realizing their power and taking hold of their own destinies.
Thus, throughout the season, there are themes of these characters being caged or choosing to be imprisoned.
In episode one, young Charlotte is literally caged in numerous ways — the tight whalebone corset restricting her movements, the wall that stops her from escaping the palace, and even being forced, initially, to wear traditional British clothing to the wedding.
This theme is revisited in episode three when Lady Danbury chastises the queen by saying her “palace walls are too high,” implying that she is too ignorant to understand her own power.
King George (Corey Mylchereest) and Lady Danbury’s own imprisonments via circumstance are also portrayed, such as George freeing the Pomeranian while he is trapped by Doctor Monro in episode four, and in episode five, when Lady Danbury is trapped wearing black clothing after her husband’s death.
This culminates in the season finale when Charlotte brings up the “palace walls” again at the royal ball. At this point, Charlotte has finally accepted her role as queen, hence her walls are a sign of strength, not ignorance.
