What makes "Bridgerton" so successful? The author behind the book reveals how the series expands the world she has created.
The fans of the Netflix series "Bridgerton" are eagerly awaiting replenishment. The first episodes around the TV couple Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor, 25) and Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page, 31), followed an audience of millions. Now it became known: The focus of season two will be a woman named Kate Sharma, who, according to the US magazine "People", will play actress Simone Ashley (25).
The new episodes of "Bridgerton" will mainly focus on Daphne's eldest brother Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey, 32). And in the novel by author Julia Quinn (51) he falls immortally in the said Kate. In the book "How do you charm a Viscount?" the character bears the surname Sheffield, but in the TV version the New Londoner will have Indian roots and the surname Sharma. Julia Quinn has no problem with such changes, she explains in an interview with spot on news.
"I'm not going to tell Shonda Rhimes how to make television"
She thinks it's "not at all" scary to let someone have her story to transform it into something new: "I trust the creative team at Shondaland unconditionally," said Quinn of the production company of Shonda Rhimes (51, "Grey's Anatomy"). The author found out about her interest in her work while she was sitting in a "Starbucks". Her agent called and asked if she'd heard from Shonda Rhimes. "I thought it was a trick question, since of course I heard from Shonda Rhimes. Then my agent said, 'I had a very interesting call …'"
"The first conversations were actually quite short," explains Quinn. "The Shondaland team asked if I was ready to give up creative control and I said, 'Yes!' There is wisdom in realizing other people's strengths. I'm not going to tell Shonda Rhimes how to make television. "
"It's amazing. And spectacular"
She is a consultant on the development of the series and the scripts, says Quinn: "I saw all of the scripts before they went into production, but honestly they were so good I had almost nothing to say. The easiest consultancy job ever Times! " She is often asked if the series looks the way she imagined. "And I don't really have an answer because I wasn't exactly imagining it. Now I get to see this – it fills in all the blanks in my imagination, which is really exciting."
"Bridgerton" has become the most successful Netflix original of all time. "I knew my readers would love it, but I had no idea it would be that successful," says the author. "The entire experience was surreal. And amazing. And spectacular. I know it sounds mundane, but it really is a dream come true." And it's not just the series that is in demand: The paperback edition of volume one, "Bridgerton – The Duke and Me" (HarperCollins) with a Netflix cover, entered the "Spiegel" bestseller list at number two. In the fall, the paperback volumes two and three of the eight-part "Bridgerton" series will follow in a new look.
"So much more from Eloise and Penelope"
And what does Quinn think the "Bridgerton" series will add to or complement what is already known from the books? "I was always aware that books and film are two different mediums, but what I didn't really realize is the sheer number of people involved in a show or film. At its core, a book comes from my imagination, from my lived experiences. With a series you have hundreds of people who are able to bring in their imaginations and lived experiences. It expands the world as much as I as a single person couldn't. "
And Quinn adds that her novels were very much centered around two main characters. With the series one can expand this with subplots and other romances. "For example, we get to see so much more of Eloise and Penelope than we did in the first book, which I think is fabulous because I love these characters. I've written books about them, but I think it's great that the audience is getting to know them better now. "
"I want to be Lady Danbury"
The author explains why so many readers and viewers feel addressed by the "Bridgerton" era, the London of the early 19th century, by stating that the Regency has always been a very popular setting in the genre of historical love stories. "It's far enough in the past that it's permeated with a fairytale quality that something can't be in the 20th or 21st century. But it's modern enough that I can get my characters to act in a way thinking and acting that resonates with contemporary readers, "said Quinn, who also explains that, like all her colleagues, she owes a lot to Jane Austen:" She is without a doubt the godmother of our genre. "
The "Bridgerton" siblings are at the center of Quinn's series, she doesn't have a favorite among these, the author reveals: "But I definitely want to be Lady Danbury when I grow up. There's a reason I put her in this way have written many books! "