Shonda Rhimes said it was easy to center a ‘Bridgerton’ spionoff on Queen Charlotte because she is like a world famous star.
The Bridgerton prequel Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story will premiere sooner. From the mind of Shonda Rhimes, fans have already gotten to know the vivacious queen (portrayed by Golda Rosheuvel). However, in the prequel series, fans will meet the young Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio), dragging her feet to marry King George (Corey Mylchreest).
The story has been in the works for some time because Shonda Rhimes has always considered Queen Charlotte the Beyoncé of Bridgerton.
‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’ premieres May 4
Fans are thrilled that Netflix has announced the Bridgerton prequel series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story will debut on May 4. The six-episode limited series will chronicle the reluctant young queen-to-be’s arrival in England for her arranged marriage.
The official logline reads,
Centered on Queen Charlotte’s rise to prominence and power, this Bridgerton-verse 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 Religion inherited by the characters in Bridgerton .
Queen Charlotte is slated to be much more than a love story. “It’s very much about how you survive in a world in which you have no power,” Rhimes told Tudum. “Where do you find the power in that? When I think about this series and what I want audiences to take away from it, I think the most important thing is I want people to feel like this is what happens with real love, love is hard, love is difficult, love has many layers , and I also want them to take away the idea that the happy ending that we always talk about for characters doesn’t have to be the obvious one.”
Queen Charlotte is the Beyoncé of ‘Bridgerton’
When it came time for Rhimes to begin thinking about the Bridgerton spinoff series, putting Queen Charlotte font and center was almost an obvious choice. “I’m very obsessed with Queen Charlotte, and I always call her the Beyoncé of the show,” she told Variety. “I’m constantly saying out loud, ‘God, I love her wigs,’ somehow hoping that somebody will send me one of them so that I can walk around wearing it.”
The writer/showrunner/producer was prompted to do the limited series by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. The executive also wanted to make sure that Rhimes penned the story herself.
‘Queen Charlotte’ is very different from ‘Bridgerton’
Although Queen Charlotte shares some of the same characters as Bridgerton, and they exist within the same world a few decades apart, the series are not the same at all. “It revolves in the same world, but I think it’s an entirely different kind of show,” Rhimes told Town & Country.
Bridgerton revolves around burgeoning love stories, but we all know that Queen Charlotte doesn’t exactly get a happy ending.
“Marriages can be complex, and the endings can be complex, and you can understand that in very real ways,” Rhimes explained to Tudum. “I loved delving into the romance between charlotte and King George; I thought that was fascinating and I wanted to be able to show people what kind of love is like, even though they already know how it ends up. I thought that was a challenge and thought that’d be exciting.”
