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The Ton would not be the same without Queen Charlotte, who’s as much a fixture in Bridgerton as the Netflix drama’s titular family. But historically speaking, the fashionable royal consort is poised to die relatively soon.
Season 3 is set around 1815 and the beloved monarch’s real-life death occurs in November 1818 — mere months before the birth of her granddaughter, the future Queen Victoria.
We can’t imagine those fancy ballroom scenes without her commanding presence and elaborate wigs, but is that an unfortunate reality we eventually must face ?
Showrunner Jess Brownell tells TVLine, “I worship Golda Rosheuvel, and I think she’s so fantastic in her role. Shonda [Rhimes] and I, internally, have just decided that we’re in an alternate dimension.”
According to the EP, that alternate history began when the queen and Lady Danbury “worked together to make society more inclusive,” as depicted in the Bridgerton prequel series Queen Charlotte. “That’s where we went into another timeline,” she explains. “There’s potential that in this timeline, Queen Charlotte could live forever.”
That lines up with what Queen Charlotte and Bridgerton EP/director Tom Verica previously said about choosing which elements from Charlotte’s life to draw from. In an interview timed to the prequel show’s finale, he told TVLine that Queen Charlotte’s creative team was “very clear that this is a fictional telling of this story, but we also wanted to honor elements of the real Queen Charlotte and her story.”
Working with historian Polly Putnam, they were strategic about which historical bits were incorporated into the show and what other details were best left out.
“We really delve into the history of Queen Charlotte and extract the elements to ground it in some reality, but we’re very clear when we diverge from that path,” he explained. “So Shonda extracted real elements of the story to be able to give authenticity to the time period, but clearly in the retelling of our story, decided where it leans into our story and how we get to the Queen Charlotte that we know at that time.”
Excellent! With all the anachronisms in general, it really shouldn’t need to be said that they’re going to tell the stories their own way. I don’t care if it’s wrong historically, I want to see Charlotte as a doting grandmother, and how that throws her own children for a loop. And I think there could be an interesting spinoff with an alt-world Victoria taking the throne and having that bond with her grandmother to draw upon.
It was obvious the show was set in an alternate universe when Queen Charlotte was not a white german woman and racial equality was a thing in the 1800s, there’s literally no reason to kill her off just because she died in real life because it is not about actual history.
I am sure that Pluto is closer to Earth than Bridgerton to reality. But people watch it, so be it. Just don’t call it historical, folks, and everything is fine.
I’m aware and I have no problem with it being not historically accurate, my point was that it was obviously not real history from the start, it did not need to be pointed out and they don’t have to make a public statement why this version of Charlotte will not die in 1818.
Oh sorry, I was not actually commenting on what you wrote, I just wanted to express my agreement with your opinion.
With English not being my first language, I tend to be misunderstood occasionally.
We all know this isn’t historically true & I don’t care. The books are different & they don’t go by them either. So keep Queen Charlotte without her there’s no Bridgerton IMO. I actually loved her story the best!
Damn, that main pic. J-Lo is looking rouuugh! No wonder the excuse her marriage is failing is a quasi-red herring for the fact she hasn’t had a hit since 20113. But she looks for regal in that pic on her throne.