Shonda Rhimes answers our burning Queen Charlotte questions

There's nothing we love more than royal gossip.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story has plenty of that to go around — from Princess Augusta's (Michelle Fairley) plotting to George (Corey Mylchreest) and Charlotte's (India Amarteifio) "even days" to Lady Danbury's (Arsema Thomas) affair to Reynolds (Freddie Dennis) and Brimsley's (Sam Clemmetts) romance.

But now that the limited Netflix series has reached its conclusion, we still have some questions. Luckily, creator Shonda Rhimes has answers. Whether you're wondering how this show impacts future seasons of Bridgerton or why she wanted to write a show about loneliness, we've got you covered.

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? She's not a character in the original novels, but she is a figure from history and, and quickly became a fan favorite.

SHONDA RHIMES: As played by Golda Rosheuvel [on Bridgerton], she was always incredibly fascinating to me. The idea of that character as inhabited by that actor really made me interested and I started to think about how she came to be, who she was and how much fun she is, but how much we don't see her personal side. We only see her public side, and I really wanted to delve into that.

On Bridgerton, 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 started Bridgerton, 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.

Liam Daniel/Netflix Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) is having a ruff time

Can you elaborate on that personal attachment? Was she included in Bridgerton at your suggestion?

We had a lot of talks about it — the idea of bringing in a queen and the idea of making her a woman of color was very much part of at the forefront of our discussions. 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? 

No. I'm not telling their story. And I'm not trying to tell them anything with this story. They are real live, living, breathing people and I like to respect that fact and just enjoy the fact that Queen Charlotte is my fictional version of what we've created.

With Bridgerton, we have this diverse world, and there of course has been explanation of the Queen's history and how people like the Duke of Hastings received their titles. How much was diving into the history of that and how fraught that was at her arrival your impetus for wanting to tell this story? 

It wasn't really my main focus in telling the story, but I couldn't tell the story without it. We say that George and Charlotte's love united the Bridgerton-verse, so that's great. But I knew that we were going to have to see how that all happened, how it came about, how difficult it was, and I got to imagine that and draw on real experience for that and see how that grew from there.

Was any part of that wanting to push back or answer criticism of Bridgerton that it doesn't show or take into account the real challenges of what uniting society in this way would be like?

When we're in Bridgerton, we're past that point. They've already been united, so I don't know how we would show something that happened in the past. I wanted to tell the story of this young woman of color arriving in this world where she never imagined she'd be and marrying a man she did not know and what ramifications that would have.

Queen Charlotte also gives us some story in the Bridgerton timeline, most importantly a budding friendship between Violet (Ruth Gemmell) and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh). 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. In Bridgerton, we're watching them in their public world take care of their daughters and their nieces and shove them all towards marriage. I wanted to see what's going on in their private world. The idea that we get to explore that is exciting. And I really wanted to have this story where Violet's really seriously thinking about stepping into the world again.

Nick Wall/Netflix Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) promenade

How might Violet and Lady Danbury's relationship and this peek into their interior lives impact future seasons of Bridgerton? 

Oh, I can't comment on that. That's a spoiler.

The message of the show seems to be that love can offer a refuge and it can offer hope, but at the end of the day, it can't work miracles. 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. Bridgerton really 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 enjoying Queen Charlotte getting 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. People go through troubles and tribulations, and I wanted to see our characters deal with that and still somehow have a good marriage. 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.

The show also has a lot to say about loneliness and how that can shape us for better or worse. Was that something you had on your mind a lot because of the pandemic or is it a theme that you think about a lot anyway?

It's a theme I think about anyways. Literally every, every show I've ever written is about people's fear of being alone in some way, or people trying to find someone so they're not alone. What was interesting about this is I felt like the loneliness that you see in Charlotte is then reflected in the lives of the older women in the Bridgerton-verse. 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.

How exciting was it to switch from this very young lovers, fairy-tale-type storytelling in Bridgerton to women who have a bit more experience under their belt?

It was great. The Bridgerton books have a certain tone and tale that we really wanted to honor because that's what makes them so popular. 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 with Bridgerton author Julia Quinn. What was that like?

Julia has such a way with words. It's this crazy dream of I got to write a whole show and then got to work it into the language of Bridgerton the way she tells stories. 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.

Queen Charlotte arose really naturally out of Golda's performance and people's love for this character, but if you for some reason were forced to create another spin-off is there a character in the Bridgerton world that you feel would sustain this or whose story you'd like to tell?

I am obsessed with Violet too. She's very interesting as a character and has a lot of layers to her life that we don't quite know yet. It's also another complicated love story.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is streaming now on Netflix.

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