Sometimes, a random Thursday is the best time to be a Bridgerton fan. Netflix and Shondaland have announced a new spinoff series: a prequel about Violet and Edmund Bridgerton’s romance. “The love match that started it all shall soon be yours to see, dear reader,” The Lady Whistledown pamphlet teased.
The currently unnamed series will be co-written, showrun, and executive produced by Bridgerton executive producer Shonda Rhimes alongside Nicholas Nardini. The latter has worked on many Shondaland productions, including penning scripts for Bridgerton’s first spinoff series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, which Rhimes created. As a Shonda Rhimes super fan, I am thrilled that she’ll be so heavily involved with this show.
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Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story dropped in May 2023 – between Bridgerton’s second and third seasons. There are no details about when this new spinoff series will be released. There aren’t even any casting confirmations as of now. However, it would be best if this show brought back as many cast members from Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story as possible. That season introduced Connie Jenkins-Greig as a young Lady Violet.
She appeared alongside India Amarteifio as a young Queen Charlotte, Corey Mylchreest as a young King George, Arsema Thomas as a young Agatha Danbury, and so on. Assumedly, this series would also cast a young Portia Featherington and maybe even revisit a young Brimsely and Reynolds. But maybe that last part is wishful thinking.
So, one of the biggest questions is who will be playing Viscount Edmund Bridgerton – if the prequel series keeps the younger cast the universe already has. Fans of the romance series will know that Jonah Hauer-King has been a popular fancast for, well, years. Regardless, there is no news on who will be playing the Bridgerton patriarch. Of course, Rupert Evans plays adult Edmund in only one flashback in Bridgerton‘s second season. But portraits of Rupert’s Edmund exist throughout Bridgerton House.
The only real blurb about the show comes from Shondaland: “The new series (aka Untitled Bridgerton Project) will reveal how Violet Ledger met and fell in love with Viscount Edmund Bridgerton, whose eventual tragic death (via a bee sting) and absence loom over his wife and children.”
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There is a significant portion of time between that prequel series (1761) and Bridgerton Season 1’s timeline (1813). So, there are plenty of opportunities for this new series to fill in those gaps by telling Violet and Edmund’s story. Like Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story it also has the chance to elevate the original series by revealing all of this new connective tissue and depth.
For example, in Bridgerton Season 3, Violet tells her daughter Francesca that she was practically tongue-tied when she met Edmund for the first time. She even forgot her own name. Francesca then does just that when she meets John Stirling’s cousin, Michaela for the first time.
Francesca and Michaela’s season, which is currently in production in London, is set to premiere next year. There is no announced release date for this untitled spinoff series. On the other hand, the original series was greenlit for a sixth season in 2025. It’s a safe bet that it will follow Eloise Bridgerton’s romance with, if it follows the books (and, hopefully, it does) with Philip Crane.
If Netflix keeps up one season a year of Bridgerton, could that mean that this prequel series will release between Francesca and Eloise’s seasons? There’s no way to know right now. The only thing that is certain is that Bridgerton fans have plenty to look forward to in the near future. Needles to say, the ton is certainly buzzing with this long-awaited news.
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