Bridgerton will intentionally leave out a major character’s death despite it being historically inaccurate.
After Bridgerton’s third season concluded on Thursday, June 13, showrunner Jess Brownell was asked about the show currently being set in 1815, since Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) died in 1818 — months before the birth of her granddaughter a.k.a the future Queen Victoria.
“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,” Brownell told TVLine about why viewers don’t have to worry about Charlotte being killed off.
Brownell specifically pointed to the moment when the queen and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) “worked together to make society more inclusive” as the point that created the alternate universe. “That’s where we went into another timeline,” she explained. “There’s potential that in this timeline, Queen Charlotte could live forever.”
The monarch has been featured front and center on Bridgerton since the show debuted in 2020. The fan-favorite character later received a prequel series of her own, which introduced the young Queen Charlotte’s (India Amarteifio) rise to prominence and power after she exchanged vows with King George III (Corey Mylchreest).
In addition to exploring the characters originally brought to life by Rosheuvel and James Fleet, who played present-day King George, Queen Charlotte also focused on young Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas) and Violet Bridgerton (Connie Jenkins-Greig).
Before the prequel premiered, Rosheuvel, 54, teased how Netflix was able to expand the Bridgerton universe. “We’re going to still be in the world of Bridgerton. We’re not moving away from the world that we know and love Queen Charlotte to be in. I think that’s really clever, because it kind of keeps us on the same track,” she told E! News in March 2022. “I think it’s really going to be interesting to see where she has come from and the things that have led her to her in the Bridgerton that we know and love.”
Rosheuvel also praised the hit series for introducing important conversations about representation.
She continued: “That’s the beauty of Bridgerton. We can sit there and it just be, and it be celebrated. We can push the boundaries, then allow people to just sit in it, experience it, and recognize themselves in it. That’s the power of storytelling — to just be and play.”
Bridgerton director Tom Verica discussed how the creative team chose which elements from Charlotte’s life to draw from after the prequel premiered.
“[We] were 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,” he told TVLine in April 2023. “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. So Shonda [Rhimes] 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.”
Bridgerton is currently streaming on Netflix.
