Hold onto your corsets – following the release of the still-sensual, but significantly-less-sex-filled second season of Regency era period drama Bridgerton last week, Netflix has announced a new prequel spin-off series is on the way, based around the show’s meddling, meticulous monarch, Queen Charlotte.
The prequel series (also produced by Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland) will see Golda Rosheuvel reprise her role as the extravagantly-wigged, diamond-choosing, occasional drug-snorting Queen, with a younger version of the character being played by Sex Education’s India Amarteifio in her first lead role. Adjoa Andoh will also return as iconic matriarch Lady Danbury – with relative newcomer Arsema Thomas playing her younger self – while Ruth Gemmell will be back as Lady Bridgerton, and Corey Mylchreest will be a young King George. Husband to Charlotte, and played by James Fleet in the main Bridgerton series, George is history’s so-called ‘mad king’, depicted in the show as suffering from some kind of illness akin to dementia.
The cross-generational cast implies the prequel show will rely on flashbacks, or straddle two timelines, giving us a look at the heavy-hitters of the ‘Ton when they first joined society, long before the dramas of Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and the Duke (Regé-Jean Page), or Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate (Simone Ashley).
There’s no hint of a release date or an official title for the Queen Charlotte spin-off just yet, but fans will be happy they have that and the third season of Bridgerton to look forward to after the inevitable binge-watches of Season Two, streaming on Netflix now.