The Queen Charlotte prequel has two timelines: One, in the past, tells the love story of a young Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) and a young King George III (Corey Mychlreest); the other, in the present, shows the “present” Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) consulting with her friends Lady Danbury (Ajdoa Andoh) and Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemell) about the fact that none of her children are married.
But when does this “present” Queen Charlotte timeline take place in the Bridgerton universe?
A line from Violet Bridgerton in episode five, “Gardens in Bloom,” gives us the viewer’s answer: “I’m not okay. My family… Anthony’s on his honeymoon,” she tells Lady Danbury, “Gregory seems to have grown twice as tall in a month… Eloise’s been arguing with Penelope, and you know how close those two are. So she’s stomping around the house, looking like a thundercloud. I could go on… Do you get it?”
This is a direct reference to the end of Bridgerton season two, after we learned that Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) had just gone on a six-month honeymoon. It also alludes to Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie) discovering that her best friend Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) is actually Lady Whistledown, leading to a huge fight between the two women; though Violet, of course, doesn’t know what’s causing the fight.
During their argument, Eloise tells Penelope that she wants to never speak to her again—so we can assume that this is still the time when they’re arguing. Since Anthony is on his honeymoon, we can safely say that Queen Charlotte takes place after the events of Bridgerton season two, but before the plot of Bridgerton season three.
In an interview, Shonda Rhimes said that the romance between Brimsley (who appeared in Bridgerton) and Reynolds (who only appeared in the prequel) could appear in future Bridgerton episodes. “We talk about it a lot,” Rhimes told Variety. “And for a while, I kept it very tight, and didn’t necessarily know that I wanted to show it in a Bridgerton season.
But now we’ve talked about what it would be like if we saw a little bit of current Bridgerton, with Brimsley and Reynolds, and what that would mean.” She added, “I think that takes away our opportunity to tell that story the way it should be told.” (Is she teasing a second season of Queen Charlotte, or the rumored Violet prequel?)
