There’s nothing we love more than royal gossip.
But now that the limitedNetflixseries has reached its conclusion, we still have some questions.
Luckily, creatorShonda Rhimeshas answers.
Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) is having a ruff time.Liam Daniel/Netflix
Read on for Rhimes' answers to all our burning questions.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When did you first start thinking about your own series for Queen Charlotte?
SHONDA RHIMES:As played by Golda Rosheuvel [onBridgerton],she was always incredibly fascinating to me.
Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) promenade.Nick Wall/Netflix
We only see her public side, and I really wanted to delve into that.
OnBridgerton,you’re executive producer, but here you took a more direct role as showrunner and creator.
What made you want to wear that hat here?
Well, it’s the hat I usually wear.
When we startedBridgerton, I was a little too exhausted for that to be my hat.
Getting to work with other writers was exciting.
But for this one, it felt personal.
I felt a personal attachment to this queen and to her story, and I really enjoyed telling it.
Can you elaborate on that personal attachment?
Was she included inBridgertonat your suggestion?
We all knew that that’s what we wanted to do.
You’ve made Charlotte a person of color based on historical record, which is still disputed.
Do you think that Britain and historians at large would ever seriously acknowledge Charlotte’s heritage?
I have never once thought about that.
I have to be honest, I don’t know.
Stories are going to do what they’re going to do.
Do you think that there’s anything the Windsors could learn or take to heart from this story?
I’m not telling their story.
And I’m not trying to tell them anything with this story.
We say that George and Charlotte’s love united theBridgerton-verse, so that’s great.
When we’re inBridgerton, we’re past that point.
Something that you’ve long championed in your work is acknowledging the sexuality of older women.
Why was that something that you really wanted to bring forward in their story here?
I felt like it was important.
You really want to see these women for who they are.
I wanted to see what’s going on in their private world.
The idea that we get to explore that is exciting.
How might Violet and Lady Danbury’s relationship and this peek into their interior lives impact future seasons ofBridgerton?
Oh, I can’t comment on that.
That’s a spoiler.
How did you find your way through that?
Because it’s melancholy, but true.
Well, I was not interested in telling the perfect fairy tale.Bridgertonreally is about that.
But we’ve all seen King George with Queen Charlotte.
We already know that there’s something that’s not easy about that relationship.
I was really enjoyingQueen Charlottegetting to tell a story about complicated love.
How she meets a man and then marries him, and then she falls in love with him.
I wanted to explore the realities of that.
People aren’t perfect.
Because they were in love in real life.
They were in love for like 60 years or something.
It was really beautiful, and I wanted to portray that.
It’s a theme I think about anyways.
Because they’ve lived this life of isolation in their own way.
You’re really understanding what it felt like when you’re watching it with Charlotte.
That’s what makes them so beloved.
I was interested in telling a story about more of the complexities of being a woman.
You co-wrote a novelization of the series withBridgertonauthor Julia Quinn.
What was that like?
Julia has such a way with words.
That was really fun for us both.
I was so appreciative of every single new thing she’d added or something that we took away.
I am obsessed with Violet too.
It’s also another complicated love story.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is streaming now on Netflix.
