How Queen Charlotte’s Story Changed Bridgerton
Actresses Golda Rosheuvel and Adjoa Andoh reflect on how the Queen Charlotte series can influence how people understand their characters in Bridgerton’s season three.
Right from the start of Bridgerton’s first season, matriarchs Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury captivated audiences with their wit and friendship. However, it wasn’t until the spinoff series Queen Charlotte that audiences truly got to understand their relationship and the complex and often difficult challenges they faced as younger women.
And now their Queen Charlotte journey is coming with them into Bridgerton season three. Or, as actress Golda Rosheuvel put it today, “The fans have now caught up.”
During a discussion in London’s Claridge’s Hotel today as some details of season three were revealed, Rosheuvel and Andoh reflected on how the audience can now relate to their characters with more context. “What’s been lovely for season three, once you know a little bit of her history, is to get an understanding of why she’s so invested in the Bridgerton family,” Andoh said of Lady Danbury. “To understand that she can be this older woman but she still carries this huge life-changing love for Lord Ledger. And it informs every fiber of her being and the way she moves forward in the world.”
She added, “When you see Lady Danbury as an older woman operating in the Ton, you understand why she is an operator. Because how do you survive in this frankly hostile environment if you don’t understand the navigations that must be made. And you see in Queen Charlotte her negotiations with George’s mother. She uses knowledge as her superpower.”
For her part, Golda Rosheuvel is keen for fans to know what she knew when she first explored her character for series one. “What I think is really beautiful and that I carry in my heart is that the fans have now caught up,” she said. “Adjoa and I, when we first started Bridgerton, we did all the work. We did all the research, we did character in depth, you know, I knew about my children. But the audience didn’t.”
Rosheuvel continued, “I always kind of described Queen Charlotte as behind the scenes…and now the fans have caught up with the three characters that they know and love so well from Bridgerton. That feels to me like a beautiful support going into Bridgerton number three. You know the fans are with us, they’re rooting for us and they understand us. They understand the complexities of the relationships that have been formed and they have seen in Queen Charlotte.”
Series three of Bridgerton premieres on May 16.
