Take a first look at Netflix’s Bridgerton spinoff series centered on the rise and love life of a young Queen Charlotte: Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is coming soon! The limited series will also focus on young Violet Bridgerton and Lady Danbury. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is set to premiere on May 4, 2023.
Logline
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 Ton inherited by the characters in Bridgerton.
Cast & character description
- Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte), Adjoa Andoh (Lady Agatha Danbury) and Ruth Gemmell (Lady Violet Bridgerton) reprise their roles from Bridgerton in this series.
- India Amarteifio (Line of Duty) plays Young Queen Charlotte. Betrothed to the mysterious King of England against her will, Charlotte arrives in London only to realize she was not exactly what the royals were expecting. As she learns to navigate the palace, the ‘ton and her unpredictable husband, she grows into one of Europe’s most unforgettable monarchs.
- Michelle Fairley (Gangs of London) plays Princess Augusta. Determined to maintain her family’s power, the Dowager Princess does what it takes to secure her son’s place as monarch amidst a changing, modernizing Britain.
- Corey Mylchreest (Sandman) plays Young King George. Handsome, charismatic, and a bit of a mystery, George has always bowed to the restraints placed on him as the Crown. Until now. Having to share his space, and bed, with his new wife forces George to face his hidden demons head on.
- Arsema Thomas plays Young Agatha Danbury. Under the thumb of a much older husband, Agatha uses Charlotte’s arrival to find her own way into society. With keen knowledge of the once divided social scene and the intricacies of marriage, Agatha becomes a guiding light for the new Queen, all while finding her own voice and power we’ll soon recognize as Bridgerton’s iconic Lady Danbury.
- Rounding out the cast are Sam Clemmett (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – West End and Broadway, The War Below) who plays Young Brimsley. Richard Cunningham (The Witcher) plays Lord Bute. Tunji Kasim (Nancy Drew) plays Adolphus. Rob Maloney (Casualty) plays the Royal Doctor. Cyril Nri (Cucumber) plays Lord Danbury. Hugh Sachs (Bridgerton Seasons 1 & 2) plays Brimsley (older).
June 9 UPDATE
- Katie Brayben and Keir Charles will play recurring characters Vivian Ledger and Lord Ledger, respectively.
July 7 UPDATE
- Connie Jenkins-Greig will play the recurring character of Young Violet Ledger – the daughter of Vivian and Lord Ledger. She’s been described as a kind and inquisitive teenager who has not yet entered the marriage mart … or famously become a Bridgerton.
Production
Showrunner/Executive Producer/Writer: Shonda Rhimes
Director/Executive Producer: Tom Verica
Executive Producer: Betsy Beers
The spinoff will reveal more on Queen Charlotte, Lady Danbury and Lady Violet’s friendship!
As you all remember, there was a scene in season 2 where King George showed up during a meeting the Queen was having with the Sharmas, Lady Violet and Lady Danbury. Lady Violet and Lady Danbury have been friends with the Queen for such a long time, and it showed in that scene, as Golda Rosheuvel said herself.
“I’ve got my two best friends in the room, Ladies Danbury and Violet. I’ve got these unknown entities in the Sharmas. And there’s a wedding that’s not happening for the Diamond that I chose,” Rosheuvel explains. “Then the husband comes in. How do all of these emotional stories collide when this thing happens? In the first take, I just focused on my best mates. The King comes in, and that emotion hits me. I know that they’ve seen him behave like this before, and I know that they know what’s going on because I’ve told them. They’re my mates. They are like family.”
But the spinoff will explore more of that friendship, as Adjoa Andoh says while recalling a scene in season 2 with Danbury and Violet laughing their hearts out.
“Lady Bridgerton has to deal with eight children and who’s marrying whom, and she kind of keeps a tight lid on everything,” Andoh says. “It’s all kind of controlled. And Lady Danbury thinks she knows everything until the wheels fall off, and she hides away in a room. These women have a long-time friendship. What are they going to do? It is a ‘laugh or cry’ moment. In an honest and safe way, they just laugh. There’s something really touching about seeing people who think they’re in control just surrender.”
“You need to strategize,” Andoh says of her character’s agility and grace amid the Ton. “These courts are not cuddly, friendly places. They’re rabid, and you have to survive. Lady Danbury has gotten to a position of comfort and safety and status because she learned to play the game, and you will see how.”
Golda Rosheuvel Promises The Queen’s Spin-Off Will Have the Same “Passion and Drama”
“It’s definitely gonna have all the passion and the drama,” she told hosts Justin Sylvester and Loni Love in an exclusive interview. “You’re going to see young Queen Charlotte, young Lady Danbury, young Violet [Bridgerton], young Brimsley. It’s gonna be in the world of Bridgerton, so you’re gonna see how they got to where they are now.”
Rosheuvel will reprise her role as the Queen of England in the new series along with Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh and Ruth Gemmell as Lady Danbury and Lady Bridgerton, respectively. Actress India Amarteifio will play Queen Charlotte in her younger years alongside several new cast members.
Something Rosheuvel’s younger counterpart will have to get used to: Queen Charlotte’s extravagant hairstyles, as she revealed that her season one looks were far heavier than season two’s.
“Some of them are heavy,” Rosheuvel shared. “Season two, I got to be more collaborative with Erica, who is our amazing makeup and hair design. We talked nearly every single day about what we were gonna do.”
The Netflix star didn’t want to stop having “those works of art appear in the show,” so part of her collaboration with hair and makeup involved brainstorming better ways to help her “sustain a day’s filming.”
“We talked about different materials that we could use to kind of make the framing inside the wigs that you see,” she shared, “to use different materials that were lighter than the ones we originally used.”
“I would say on a bad day—which is a good day because it’s a ball,” she said, “it would take about two and a half hours.”
The neck pain was worth it in the end, as Rosheuvel loves being a part of Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland, calling it “an amazing world to live in.”
“It’s positive, it’s really friendly, it’s a family, it’s really supportive. There’s so, so, so much love in that world,” she shared. “I’m really, really grateful to be a part of it.”
Part of that “amazing world” comes from the show’s diverse cast of characters, something the actress finds very important to see on TV.
“We want modern stories, stories that reflect the world that we’re living in today. We want diversity, we want inclusion,” she said. “And I think you can see from the popularity and the success of the show globally that this is what people want in their storytelling nowadays.”
‘Queen Charlotte’ Cast Teases the New World Explored in ‘Bridgerton’ Spinoff
“The idea of actually getting the opportunity to dig into this entirely new world in the context of the origin story of a character — not only the origin story of Queen Charlotte, but obviously Lady Danbury as well, and understanding also the world of Violet Bridgerton, I think it was just incredible opportunity to expand the world as we know it and bring a whole other point of view,” said Beers, “Bridgerton” and “Queen Charlotte” executive producer.
Netflix jumped to create the spinoff thanks to the popularity of the “Bridgerton” character, played by Rosheuvel.
However, the Queen’s origin story was uncharted territory for Rhimes and Beers considering she wasn’t a focal character in the “Bridgerton” novels written by Julia Quinn.
“That’s what I liked about it. It was unknown as to what that is. That character wasn’t even in the book. So I think once the series came out, people were really attracted to that character and how she came to be,” said director and executive producer, Tom Verica. “You basically have a blueprint, because the character is a real character in history. So we selected what it is that we wanted and extracted what the story needs to be underneath that. But it was a tremendous, deep dive into who she was, Queen Charlotte, and merging that historical nature.”
“It feels different. It doesn’t feel like it’s just trying to do the same thing earlier and I think we just take more personal journey,” Verica adds.
For Thomas, the event served as a major celebrate as she made her first major project debut since leaving acting school.
“I technically did not graduate. They were like ‘you don’t get your degree,’” she explained on the carpet, fully offering a heavenly look in all white and pearls. “It was a lot. There’s a lot of impostor syndrome, I think, ‘I obviously don’t deserve to be here, they must have made a mistake.’ So to realize that I am meant to be here, that I’ve been given that confidence by a lot of my peers, and from a beautiful script, It’s kind of allowed me to sort myself out, get it together. it’s been a growing experience, massive learning curve.”
Thomas portrays the younger Lady Danbury, whom viewers will get a chance to see as she explores love and marriage and explores the workings of social hierarchy and politics.
“I think I’m really excited for them to see that she’s different than in ‘Bridgerton.’ She’s not as strong and independent. She’s actually very submissive, and answers to everything that her husband says. She is almost like the quintessential housewife,” said Thomas. “I think it’s such an exciting thing for people to see. To see that you can change, that you can adapt and you don’t have to be the same person you were yesterday. How freeing and relaxing is that?”
India Amarteifio & Corey Mylchreest on Their Chemistry
Extra’s caught up with the actors at the L.A. premiere, where they opened up about working together.
Terri praised their on-screen chemistry, and India said of Corey, “He is such a lovely guy, super talented, super dedicated. We had a great time and I’m so happy for him. I think he’s done such an amazing job… He is his biggest critic. He needs to turn a mirror to himself for him to look at his work because he’s done such a fantastic job.”
Corey opened up about their chemistry test back in 2022, saying, “There is a scene right at the beginning of Episode 1 where George and Charlotte first meet and it’s like an eight-page, 10-page scene, and so we did that. We played around with that in a few different ways, which was actually kind of helpful because those characters are meeting for the first time. Me and India were meeting for the first time as well.”
He went on, “There’s a slightly more problematic scene at the end of Episode 1 and we also did that where it’s slightly less happy-go-lucky and slightly more ‘this might ruin your life’ and just playing around with how both of us understood those moments.”
MyIchreest said, “We worked well before we knew anything about each other and… being friends it helps, and that came pretty naturally, and when you’re doing some, like, really intimate and vulnerable and sometimes, like, really emotionally charged scenes, you know, it’s exposing to be around that, and you’re doing that with each other like for hours a day, so you form a bit of a bond… You trust each other, which was great.”
Shonda Rhimes Explains Why Golda Rosheuvel Is One Of The Main Reasons ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’ Exists
Shonda Rhimes has credited Golda Rosheuvel for being one of the main reasons “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” exists.
Rosheuvel takes on the role of Queen Charlotte in the spinoff, and creator Shonda Rhimes recently gushed about the actress in an interview with ET Canada.
Rhimes said of when she realized she wanted to focus a whole series on Charlotte: “I’d been talking about it with the head of Netflix a little bit. He brought the suggestion to me, and I think I had always been fascinated by Golda. You know, there’s something about the way she portrays Queen Charlotte that was really fascinating to me, and it made me really start to wonder about these other women. So getting to tell the story, which is an epic love story, was really fun for me. But also getting to show a queen’s, a young queen’s rise to power was exciting too.”
Rhimes added when asked how hard it was to cast a younger version of the character, given Rosheuvel did such a great job.
She told us, “It was interesting. We saw lots and lots of young women, but the minute India [Amarteifio] walked in, we knew that she was the one. It was not a hard choice once we met her.”
Rhimes said of why Amarteifio was the one, “She has a quiet sparkle about her that I think is just obvious there. She’s got her own little diamond thing going on. But also, she’s just a layered and thoughtful actor. And I knew that she would be able to sort of take the Queen Charlotte that we have in ‘Bridgerton’ and sort of work backwards to help herself create this character.”
After Rhimes’ comments, ET Canada then spoke to Rosheuvel and told her the kind words she’d said about her performance being the main reason for the series.
She replied, “That’s very kind. She had mentioned it. But it’s one of those things where you kind of go, ‘ooh!’ You know? And get like, you know, if this was big enough, I’d kind of slowly disappear in front of you.”
Photos from the first table read
Read the first excerpt from the Queen Charlotte novel penned by Shonda Rhimes and Julia Quinn
The only thing better than a new Julia Quinn Bridgerton book is a new Bridgerton book authored by both Quinn and Netflix series executive producer Shonda Rhimes.
Charlotte
EW has your exclusive sneak peek at the novel below with a first excerpt.
Essex, England
The London Road
8 September 1761
Like all members of the German aristocracy, Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was in possession of a great many names. Sophia for her maternal grandmother, Sophia Albertine of Erbach-Erbach, a countess by birth and a duchess by marriage. Charlotte for her father, Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who was born a second son and had died before he could assume the position of head of the family. Then there were the many and sundry double-barreled lands and properties that made up her heritage. Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Erbach-Erbach, of course, but also Saxe-Hildburghausen, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, and, if one wanted to go back far enough, Waldeck-Eisenberg.
She enjoyed all of her names, and she was proud of every last one, but the one she liked best was Lottie.
Lottie. It was the simplest of the bunch, but that wasn’t why she liked it. Her tastes rarely ran to the simple, after all. She liked her wigs tall and her dresses grand and she was quite certain no one in her household appreciated the complexities of music or art as keenly as she did.
Shewas not a simple creature.
She was not.
But she liked being called Lottie. She liked it because hardly anyone ever used it. You had to know her to call her Lottie.
You had to know, for example, that in spring her favorite dessert was raspberry-apricot torte and in winter it was apple strudel, but the truth was she had a taste for fruit, and for sweets, and any sweet made of fruit was her absolute favorite.
People who called her Lottie also knew that when she was a young girl she’d loved to swim in the lake by her home (when it was warm enough, which it rarely was). They also knew that when her mother had banned the practice (stating that Charlotte was too old for such frivolity), Charlotte had not spoken to her for three weeks. Peace was reestablished only after Charlotte had written a surprisingly thorough legal document outlining the rights and responsibilities of all involved parties. Her mother was not immediately persuaded by Charlotte’s arguments, but her older brother Adolphus had intervened. Charlotte had made a good case, he’d said. She’d shown logic and intelligence, and surely that should be rewarded.
Adolphus was the one who’d coined the pet name Lottie. And that was the true reason it was her favorite name. It had been bestowed upon her by her favorite brother.
Pardon, her former favorite brother.
“You give the appearance of a statue,” Adolphus said, smiling as if she had not spent the last three weeks begging him not to marry her off to a stranger.
Charlotte wanted to ignore him. She’d have liked nothing better than to never utter a word in his direction for the remainder of both of their lives, but even she recognized the futility of such stubbornness. And besides, they were in a carriage in the southeast of England, and they had a long ride both ahead and behind them.
She was bored and furious, never a good combination.
“Statues are works of art,” she said icily. “Art is beautiful.”
This made her brother smile, damn his eyes. “Art can be beautiful to gaze upon,” he said with some amusement. “You, on the other hand, are ridiculous to the eye.”
“Is there a point?” Charlotte bit off.
He shrugged. “You have not moved an inch in six hours.”
Oh. Oh. He should not have gone there. Charlotte leveled her dark eyes on his with a ferocity that ought to have terrified him. “I am wearing Lyonnaise silk. Encrusted with Indian sapphires. With an overlay of two-hundred-year-old lace.”
“And you look beautiful,” he said. He reached out to pat her knee, then hastily withdrew his hand when he caught her expression.
Murderous.
“Apparently too much movement could cause the sapphires to shred the lace.” Charlotte growled. She literally growled. “Do you want me to shred the lace? Do you?”
She did not wait for him to answer. They both knew he was not meant to. “If that were not enough,” she continued, “the gown sits atop a bespoke underpinning made of whalebone.”
“Whalebone?”
“Yes. Whalebone, Brother. The bones of whales. Whales died so I could look like this.”
At that, Adolphus laughed outright. “Lottie—”
Are you excited about Bridgerton ‘s spinoff centered on Queen Charlotte?
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