Shonda Rhimes Will Write Netflix's Young Lady Violet 'Bridgerton' Prequel

The limited series follows Violet's romance with Viscount Edmund Bridgerton and brings back much of the 'Queen Charlotte' creative team.

Bridgerton viewers have only known Lady Violet as a widow, the mother of eight who spent Season 4 working out whether she was allowed a second love. Netflix is now going back for her first one.

The streamer has greenlit an untitled limited series about a young Violet and her courtship with Viscount Edmund Bridgerton, Deadline reported Thursday, and Shonda Rhimes is writing it. Netflix confirmed the show on Tudum, its fan site, naming Rhimes and Nicholas Nardini as its writers, showrunners and executive producers. That byline is the news inside the news. According to Deadline, it's the first show Rhimes has written since "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story."

That's the comparison Netflix is inviting. Deadline says Rhimes wrote every episode of the 2023 "Queen Charlotte" except one, which Nardini wrote, and the two shared credit on another. Netflix now bills that show as an Emmy winner and a huge global hit. According to Deadline, talk of a second prequel started soon after "Queen Charlotte" premiered in May 2023.

Rhimes has already written for this character. Netflix credits her with the Season 4 scene built around Violet's line "I am the tea that you are having." That same season, TheWrap noted, had Violet weighing a romance with Lord Marcus Anderson and even thinking about remarrying.

This time there's a book to work from. "Queen Charlotte" was invented from Julia Quinn's characters, but the Violet series has Quinn's novella "Violet in Bloom," a bonus chapter in "The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After." According to TheWrap, it follows Violet from childhood through her marriage to Edmund and the years after he died, while she was carrying their youngest.

Much of the "Queen Charlotte" team is coming back. Tom Verica returns to direct and executive produce, and Shondaland's Betsy Beers is an executive producer. Ruth Gemmell plays Violet on the main show. Netflix's announcement didn't name anyone to play her younger self or Edmund, and it gave no premiere date.

Violet was always the likely pick. "Queen Charlotte" featured older versions of Charlotte, Lady Danbury and Violet, and Verica told Deadline in January that more spinoffs about existing characters were in development. Lady Danbury's love life had already gotten its turn in "Queen Charlotte," Deadline pointed out, which left Violet as the obvious next lead.

The main show keeps growing too. Netflix says Season 4 premiered at No. 1 on its global English TV list and reached the Top 10 in 92 countries. The streamer ordered Season 6 in May 2025, and Season 5 is shooting in London now. That season pairs Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd) with Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza), the first same-sex couple the franchise has put at its center, according to TheWrap.

For Netflix, Bridgerton is also a business. Deadline reports the franchise makes real money beyond streaming, from consumer products to live experiences, and that Netflix built Shondaland its own studio in the U.K. to film it. The Violet project picked up speed in recent months, according to Deadline, amid speculation that it would be the first series ordered under the long-term deal Rhimes signed with Netflix in August.

So it's a love story with a famous last chapter. Viewers first met Violet already widowed, raising eight children. Rhimes is writing the part that comes before that.

Source: Deadline, retrieved October 8, 2026. Other sources: Netflix, TheWrap.