Nearly a year after Queen Charlotte’s six-episode Season 1 binge drop, mega producer Shonda Rhimes — who wrote and served as showrunner on the series — is speaking about the potential for new episodes.
The Netflix drama told the story of Charlotte and George’s passionate romance and how their arranged union sparked a societal shift that resulted in the diverse world presented in Bridgerton. The season ends with the titular monarch and a rarely lucid King George in present day celebrating the news of their son Edward finally conceiving an heir.
The show’s overwhelmingly positive reception underscores a demand for potential new episodes, but will it be met? Rhimes admits that she’s still trying to figure it out.
“I don’t want to tell a story that doesn’t need to be told,” she relayed to Variety. “I don’t want to make a second season of Queen Charlotte, and you’re going to be, like, “‘Well, that wasn’t that great.’”
Tom Verica, who directed all six Queen Charlotte episodes, previously told TVLine that he approached the show as a limited series.
“I think there are always a lot of possibilities with these rich characters to open up that world,” he said. “I don’t know that it would be George and Charlotte because we have seen everything and how they set up and we know where that goes.”
However, there’s a “whole area to explore” with Lady Danbury, whose rise to prominence was also chronicled in the show.
“It’s a powerful character, both how Adjoa [Andoh] plays her in Bridgerton and what Arsema [Thomas] has done in the Queen Charlotte world,” Verica added. “They’re both amazing actors, and that character has really landed with a lot of people and strikes a chord of wanting to dive deeper into what her journey is. I think fans and myself would love to explore that character a little deeper and spend some time in that world.”
