A new series is coming to Netflix to match the Queen Charlotte series.
After watching the Queen Charlotte series on Netflix, viewers may wonder if the story is already in the Bridgerton novels or is this a Netflix creation? And the answer is unique: It’s a combination of both.
Netflix’s new series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is attracting a lot of attention. In this series, the story of how Queen Charlotte became the ruler of England at the age of 17 is the main theme. The series also helps create time jumps between the second and third seasons of Bridgerton to show the development of the royal storyline.
Fans who haven’t read the original novels may wonder how much of what they’re seeing on screen is actually in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton novels. The answer is that Bridgerton producer Shonda Rhimes has teamed up with Bridgerton author Julia Quinn to write a standalone book for the series. The book Queen Charlotte, co-written by Julian Quinn and Shonda Rhimes, is due out on May 9. It will tie Queen Charlotte’s story into the rest of the Bridgerton canon.
Previously, Queen Charlotte has only been mentioned once in the main Bridgerton books, in When He Was Wicked, the sixth book about Francesca. A character mentions that his grandmother formally met Queen Charlotte at court. There’s no further description or detail. King George and the Prince Regent are also barely in the original novels. So the Queen Charlotte book has plenty of room to explain the Bridgerton world, how it differs from official history, and why Quinn initially focused on the royal family.
In the original story, Quinn mentioned some scattered clues about Lady Danbury and Violet Bridgerton, but there are some details that Rhimes added in the new work. Violet Bridgerton’s love affair with her late husband Edmund was mentioned throughout the series but was only focused on in Violet in Bloom. The new Queen Charlotte novel adds more details to this story, clarifying the time before Violet met Edmund Bridgerton, especially the encounter between Violet and Lady Danbury when they were young.
In Bridgerton parts 1 and 2, readers may have seen Lady Danbury as one of the influential members of the English elite. Much of the information about the Danbury family comes from Book 7: It’s In His Kiss. This part of the story follows 22-year-old Hyacinth who has not found the right person.
Lady Danbury expresses regret for marrying Lord Danbury when he “didn’t have her in mind”. This fits with Queen Charlotte’s depiction of Lady Danbury as having little in common with Lord Danbury during their marriage, and thus having something in common with Queen Charlotte. There is also some discussion of Lady Danbury’s children, although she doesn’t seem to enjoy talking about them. This also explains why Lady Danbury’s son in Queen Charlotte is closer to his nanny than his mother.
For fans who have only watched the series, reading Shonda Rhimes and Julia Quinn’s upcoming novel about Queen Charlotte may be more useful for understanding the world of Bridgerton than Quinn’s previous novels, as Netflix has tweaked some of the plot and added many of the supporting characters.
For fans who don’t mind getting into the plot more thoroughly, starting to read Quinn’s novels is a great way to pass the time. Bridgerton viewers are lucky that the writers of the TV series have worked closely with the authors of the novels to create new stories for the world’s readers.
