It seems that every week Shondalond is serving up some good food to her Bridgerton fandom. A couple of weeks ago we were gifted with first look photos of Viscount Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and his soon to be bride Katie Sharma (Simone Ashley) at the Ascot races. Last month, Bridgertonites were in an uproar because we found out that the Duke of Hastings (Rege-Jean Page) will not be returning for season two. Then, this past Friday, Shondaland dropped that they will be expanding the Bridgerton universe with a limited series about the life of THE Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg (Golda Rusheuvel). The limited series will center on the rise of a young Queen Charlotte. Of course, it wouldn’t be Shondaland without amazing sex, so the series will also focus on Queen Charlotte’s love life. This will be an original work not included in the Julia Quinn book series. It historically believed that Queen Charlotte was indeed a mixed race woman. Below are a few more details from Deadline:
The Queen Charlotte limited series will center on the rise and love life of a young Queen Charlotte, the reimagined character added to the Bridgerton series that was not in Julia Quinn’s novels on which the show is based. Played by Golda Rosheuvel, Queen Charlotte quickly became a fan favorite and one of Bridgerton‘s breakout characters. The spinoff will also tell the stories of young Violet Bridgerton and Lady Danbury. Rhimes will write the series and serve as executive producer alongside Betsy Beers and Tom Verica.
“Many viewers had never known the story of Queen Charlotte before Bridgerton brought her to the world, and I’m thrilled this new series will further expand her story and the world of Bridgerton,” said Netflix head of global TV Bela Bajaria. “Shonda and her team are thoughtfully building out the Bridgerton universe so they can keep delivering for the fans with the same quality and style they love. And by planning and prepping all the upcoming seasons now, we also hope to keep up a pace that will keep even the most insatiable viewers totally fulfilled.”
Bringing Brownell on as showrunner for Seasons 3 and 4, and Rhimes herself taking on the Queen Charlotte offshoot, will allow Shondaland to rapidly scale the Bridgerton universe, with Brownell focusing on breaking Seasons 3 and 4 while Van Dusen oversees filming and post-production for Season 2, which chronicles Anthony Bridgerton’s quest for love.
Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury were my other two favorite characters in Bridgerton. And I am excited that this limited series will focus on a young Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte. I do hope that Shondaland will focus on the historical aspect of Queen Charlotte’s heritage. I studied at the University of Bologna with the intent of doing a PhD in the Black African influence in renaissance Europe. I have known about Queen Charlotte and the rumor of her being a mixed race descendant of a Portuguese (Angolan) royal family for more than a decade. I would love to see her story played out on screen without being white washed. Obviously, the series will not be laden with historical facts, but I it will be amazing to see where Shondaland takes the show. I know the new spin-off series will focus on a young Violet Bridgerton as well. I love Violet in the books but didn’t take to her as much in the show. I hope that the writers pull more from the books for Violet because she is definitely a compelling character. Her love story with Viscount Bridgerton is very interesting and sweet. I am also looking forward to seeing who gets cast in these roles. I am all about world building when it comes to these series so I am definitely looking forward to this addition. Hell, I am trying to find out how I can get on the research team at Shondaland. In the meantime, let me go eat from the plate that Shondaland and Netflix keeps serving because it is spicy.
https://t.co/1tuy0bIxZf pic.twitter.com/14dxs3353F
— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) May 14, 2021
Photos credit: Liam Daniel/Netflix
I can’t wait!This is such exciting news. The Queen is my favourite character. I hope Golda will be in the spinoff because she owned that character. They shouldn’t only focus on the Queen’s younger years.
Hell yes to some Marvel-level universe building. Romance fans deserve it too.
I think it could end up being good. I really liked the Queen, Lady Danbury and Violet so for all 3 to be in a show makes me excited for it
I’m in! I think Queen Charlotte will be more interesting than the brother.
Charlotte wasn’t black though. The series is fine, but historically there’s no evidence of her being black.
The myth was started by a black author who saw a portrait of her and thought she must be black because of her features in that 1 portrait(she’s depicted with n-european features in all other portraits of her) . Her Portuguese ancestor wasn’t black either.
I think people want it to be true so badly that they are willing to ignore all the evidence to the contrary. Like how many other clearly white Royals/aristocrats shared her ancestry. If their had been a black ancestor, their features would have shown up through out most of Europe’s royal/noble families due to all the intermarriage. Charlotte would not have been the only one to look mixed race.
I love the Bridgerton take on Charlotte, but if we’re talking about historical accuracy, I would agree with you. I’ve read the background on this post-Bridgerton, and there’s such different accounts depending on who you speak to.
I think what is common consensus amongst historians was that even if there was a Black ancestor, the bloodline would be so “diluted” by the time it got to Charlotte that she would basically still be white anyway.
I have some cousins who are 3/4 white and it is really difficult to spot their Asian grandmother their blood. Physically, they look Caucasian, and they do not speak our mother tongue and have never come close to a glimmer of the POC experience in their lives. I understand the link between Charlotte and a possible Black ancestor is potentially a 5-7 generational gap, so I would expect there to be even less likelihood she would identify or present as anything other than white.
Yeah I don’t believe at all Queen Charlotte was mixed race but it is interesting to believe it could be possible. All the speculation is based on one portrait and I really don’t see any suggestion she is mixed race in it though it’s hard to tell because it’s a painting. If she truly were mixed race, why do we only talk about her and not what her parents or grandparents looked like? She seems to be plucked out of a hat and people evoke her Portuguese ancestry as if that proves anything?
This bothers me more because of the fake tokenism this show does, the overt colorism of the show, and so now it’s difficult to root for this horrible historical accuracy. Like It would have been fun but with the other blights associated with the show, I just can’t enjoy this. Queen Charlotte had so little African ancestry that it was a court joke.
I’m all for this! Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury were my two favorite characters. And more about a young Violet…oh yes. Can’t wait.🤗🤗
I’m excited for this but casting is going to be so key. Part of what makes Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury so compelling as characters is how Golda Rosheuvel and Adjoa Andoh play them. A different actress is going to have a lot to live up to.
That slow unveiling of Queen Charlotte’s tragic relationship with her husband was SO well acted. She brought so many deep layers to a fairly brief performance
Yes that scene with the two of them at dinner was heartbreaking. She was excellent. She kind of reminded me of Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love – relatively few scenes overall, but just stole each and every scene she was in.
It’s so interesting that the discussion is always against her features when it’s obvious that genes create all sorts of people (i.e. Archie doesn’t look like his grandmother is Doria). Oya studied it, but for some reason she just can’t know what she’s talking about because… paintings. Eartha Kitt’s grandchildren don’t look like they would have a famous Black grandmother, but here is reality. Black is not a species, and genetics does most of the deciding. As IF all Black people had the same features. The way y’all really pretend that the aristocracy was so pure based on skin color says so much about how you don’t consider skin color and features a trait and actually buy into eugenics. This gives me Windsors concerned about skin color vibes and I am not shocked because they said what some of you think and just typed up so boldly today. Let someone paint Archie or any other mixed kid and see if you passed the test. If that worked, there wouldn’t be a thing called “PASSING”. My grandmother did it daily so pffft to your painting and regional white people with similar features. Imagine having a variety of humanity and race being fictional to support eugenics??? Someone should paint Meghan Markle and see what people think because she’s definitely on the line for ambiguous. My goodness the things people think it’s okay to type.
But a couple of paintings and speculation about Queen Charlotte’s features are the entire reason the rumor was started in the first place.
@ohreally THANK YOU!! I was going to comment much the same thing: careful y’all! Your racism is inadvertently showing.
But really, it shouldn’t be a surprise. The realities of “racial” mixing have been known, understood and experienced by communities of color for the majority of the last few hundred years. The construct of Whiteness is based on exclusion…and ignorance. The fact that one little ol’ queen of mixed African and European heritage was able to slip past the construction of whiteness should come as no grand surprise. The real surprise, to me, is that people think she would be the only one! Do you really think all those members of the British Empire spread across the globe colonizing and planting flags didn’t leave a trail of little “mixed babies” in their wake? I would speculate Queen Charlotte is just the tip of the iceberg and it’s about time (some) white people learned and accepted the truth: we’re all family.
I’m curious, but not excited. Maybe because I don’t like super hero movies, the need of a so many orgin stories (to me) is lame and a waste. I just see them as money grabs and a lack of true creativity…
Ooooo I’m so here for this! Queen Charlotte back story!! Please please please include Lady Danbury backstory too!!!
Some of these comments.. Lol
America is a melting pot of races, but you should see all the shades of people the colonizers left in countries like mine. Lots of people whiter than Meghan that are black. LOTS. But yea sure QC could never have been mixed race ok.
Anyway I’m super intrigued, I felt sadness when they spoke a little bit about her husband’s madness and the death of their child, and I felt I wanted to know more. So I’m happy that Shonda is giving us this nice treat.
I don’t particularly care for Queen Charlotte but I would like to have The Lady Danbury Chronicles. Like… 15 seasons of it.