‘Bridgerton’ Prequel in the Works at Netflix: The Untitled Lady Violet Project

Dearest Gentle Reader

The official “Bridgeton” Instagram account surprised viewers this week with a new post in the form of a Lady Whistledown letter. Like the scandal sheet in the show, it revealed a shocking secret: There’s going to be a new “Bridgerton” spinoff sometime in the near future.

Like “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” before it, this new, as-yet-untitled spinoff will take place years before the events of the first “Bridgerton” season. Lady Violet, not yet a Bridgerton, will be a young woman falling in love with her husband-to-be, Edmund. Violet and Edmund, as we know, got married and had eight children: Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory, and Hyacinth. But while four of the Bridgerton kids (and counting) have gotten their stories told, we’ve never heard the one that started it all.

But unlike “Queen Charlotte,” this new story won’t pull from real-life historical events. So what do we know about Lady Violet’s tale so far? Read on to find out!

Lady Violet finally gets the spotlight

Even while navigating her own second-chance romance, the Bridgerton matriarch is always right there, trying to guide her children towards their own love matches and prevent them from disgracing the family through scandal. With the amount of times that the “Bridgerton” characters talk about how legendary Violet’s first love match was, you’d think we’d have seen it sooner.

However, we already know how this love story is going to end. Edmund Bridgerton, quite famously, died before the show began. It was a big part of Anthony’s character arc. So Netflix has a pretty big task ahead of it. Romance stories typically end with a happily-ever-after (or an HEA for short), and getting killed by a bee is a pretty big bummer of an ever after.

But you know what? So is dementia, and “Queen Charlotte” managed to make a heartwrenching romance even if it ended with King George locked away in his room, barely able to remember his family. (Spoilers, but also that part is real British history. King George III was the guy you learned about in A.P. US History with all the taxes and the tea.)

So I’m pretty confident that Shonda Rhimes, the “Bridgerton” producer who is also writing this new series, can pull it off. And as the Netflix Tudum press release pointed out, Rhimes is the one who wrote the “I am the tea that you are having” scene from the latest “Bridgerton” season. You know, the one where Violet reveals some cool new lingerie and finally makes a move on her paramour? I trust that Lady Violet’s story is in good hands with Shonda Rhimes.

Where to find “Bridgerton” and its spinoffs

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