It will focus on the early years of Queen Charlotte.
As if Bridgerton’s much anticipated sophomore season, plus the promise of several more—the Netflix show is based on Julia Quinn’s series of eight novels, each of which focuses on a different Bridgerton sibling’s quest to find love—wasn’t enough to satiate the most enthusiastic fans of this frothy Regency-era hit, Deadline broke the news of a prequel last May, and now it’s finally here.
Also masterminded by Shonda Rhimes via her production company Shondaland, the spinoff centers on a young Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) and the great societal shift she brought on with her marriage to King George, leading to the creation of the Ton. It will also explore the early lives of Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas will play the younger version of Adjoa Andoh’s character) and Bridgerton matriarch Violet (Ruth Gemmell).
The prequel will “fill out the characters in terms of how they got to be who they are and how they got to be here,” Andoh shared with the Financial Times. The veteran actress, who has just begun a year-long stint as a visiting professor of contemporary theater at Oxford, went on to compare Rhimes’s writing to Shakespeare’s, “in its flow and its rhythm and its repetitions and its wit and its agility.”
She also mused on the legacy of the Bridgerton series, especially when it comes to onscreen diversity. “The genie’s out of the bottle,” Andoh told the FT. “For decades, I would go, ‘Oh, they’re making another costume drama. Great, so when’s the next thing I can be in?’ I don’t need to think that any more.” She continued, “When small children of color feel they can dress up as their favorite Regency character, it’s a win.. . and the riposte to the ‘go back where you came from’ people. It embeds you back into the culture that you should have always been embedded in.”
Below, everything we know about the upcoming show, titled Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
Netflix has shared a first look at Queen Charlotte.
In September, Netflix shared the first look at the show’s younger version of Charlotte, played by India Amarteifio, featuring the young royal in a flowing silver cape and an elaborate crown.
The main cast has been announced.
Nearly a year after Rhimes revealed her intentions to create a prequel, the cast was revealed. Rosheuvel, Andoh, and Gemmell will reprise their Bridgerton roles with India Amarteifio portraying the young Charlotte and Arsema Thomas the young Lady Danbury. Connie Jenkins-Greig will play a young Violet Ledger, described as “a kind and inquisitive teenager who has not yet entered the marriage mart … or famously become a Bridgerton.”
A youthful King George will be played by Corey Mylchreest, while Game of Thrones actress Michelle Fairley will star as his power-hungry mother, the Dowager Princess Augusta.
The Bridgerton storylines are works of fiction, but Queen Charlotte is based on a real individual (she wasn’t a figure in the novels but added to the TV production, which has proven to be a very successful and popular decision by Rhimes et al) . In a 2021 interview with Variety, Rhimes said she got the idea for a Charlotte-centered spinoff from Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos: “I’ll be blunt: It was when Ted picked up the phone and called me and said, ‘Why aren’t’ t we doing a show about Queen Charlotte? And will you write it?'” Not that she needed any convincing. “I’m very obsessed with Queen Charlotte, and I always call her the Beyoncé of the show,” she told the entertainment magazine.
