Julia Quinn and Shonda Rhimes co-wrote a romance about Bridgerton’s Queen Charlotte and King George III.
While Bridgerton fans anxiously await season three, there’s more exciting news coming out of the Bridgerton-verse: a new story cowritten by Julia Quinn and Shonda Rhimes all about Queen Charlotte.
Avon Books announced the new book, which will be “centered on Queen Charlotte’s rise to prominence and power.” The prequel “tells the story of how the young Queen’s marriage to King George sparked both a great love story and a societal shift, creating the world of the Ton inherited by the characters in Bridgerton.”
Queen Charlotte (subtitled Before the Bridgertons came the love story that changed the ton…) is a tie-in to the Bridgerton spinoff on Netflix, which premiered last week on May 4. The prequel will also focus on a young Queen Charlotte, who will be portrayed by India Amarteifio (and Golda Rosheuvel will reprise her role in the series).
“Taking Bridgerton from book to screen was fascinating for me to watch, and it’s such an exciting challenge for me to take it in the other direction, this time crafting Shonda’s brilliant vision into a novel,” Quinn said in a statement. “I’m especially thrilled to have the opportunity to write about Queen Charlotte, who was not in the original novels. Her character —and Golda Rosheuvel’s brilliant portrayal of her— was a tour de force, and I think readers will love getting a chance to know her more deeply.”
“Queen Charlotte has been such a moving character to write and now having the opportunity to work with Julia to adapt this story into a book is such an exciting opportunity,” Rhimes added. “I can’t wait for fans of this universe to read the story of a character that has resonated so deeply with our audience.”
While Queen Charlotte is a real historical figure—she was born a German noble and married King George III in 1761—it’s unclear how true to real life the book and the show will follow. It’s also as yet unknown if Charlotte and George’s 15 children will factor into the story.
A month ahead of the publication, Entertainment Weekly shared an excerpt, which includes narration from the Charlotte: “She enjoyed all of her names, and she was proud of every last one, but the one she liked best was Lottie. Lottie. It was the simplest of the bunch, but that wasn’t why she liked it. Her tastes rarely ran to the simple, after all. She liked her wigs tall and her dresses grand and she was quite certain no one in her household appreciated the complexities of music or art as keenly as she did. She was not a simple creature. She was not. But she liked being called Lottie. She liked it because hardly anyone ever used it. You had to know her to call her Lottie.”
