Though season two of Netflix’s global hit Bridgerton will focus on the complicated, rivalrous love story between Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), there is another love story unfolding in our next trip to the ton, the one between the three Sharma women: Kate, her younger sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran), and their mother, Lady Mary (Shelley Conn).
The trio arrives from India to debut Edwina on the marriage mart, and Anthony is immediately drawn to both sisters, if for very different reasons. When Kate learns that a true love match is not on Anthony’s list of priorities while Edwina desperately seeks just such a union, Kate tries everything in her power to stop the two from coming together. In doing so, however, Kate and Anthony’s connection seems undeniable — to everyone but them.
But the stakes are just as high for all the Sharma women. Lady Mary is no stranger to the marriage mart or to following her heart. Her well-to-do British family was marred by scandal when Mary fell in love and married a widow of no aristocratic standing from India who had a daughter — Kate — from his first marriage. They left for Bombay, where Edwina was born, not to return until she was ready for her debut season, when Mary is put to the societal test again and must stand up for herself and her daughters under the aristocracy’s scrutinous eye.
While the elder Sharma daughter is technically on the marriage mart too, Kate believes she is too old to find herself a husband. Instead, she focuses all her energy on finding her younger sister a union that will be both financially and emotionally beneficial. And while Edwina might be a bit naive, she stands by her values and stays true to herself in her quest for a true love match. When she finds herself inundated with suitors, it’s Kate who stands by Edwina’s side, helping to vet the potential matches and, of course, mismatches. And together with their mother, the three women stand strong as they navigate the craziness that is the London marriage mart.
In bringing the family from the page to the screen, creator and showrunner Chris Van Dusen actually changed the women who appear in Julia Quinn’s book on which season two is inspired, The Viscount Who Loved Me. What were the Sheffields in the book became the Sharmas on television, a natural choice for Bridgerton, a series that continues to expand the world of Regency-era London through the lens of a modern period piece.
“We want modern audiences to relate to it,” says Van Dusen. “I’ve been thrilled about the response to the Sharma family. We’re not a color-blind show — things like color and race are very much a part of the show’s conversation, just like class and gender and sexuality are.”
In getting the Sharmas ready for their debut this season, Van Dusen worked with a number of historians and consultants, as well as a diverse group of writers, all of whom had one common goal: to be as authentic as possible.
“You really see the authenticity and the details of the Sharmas’ South Asian heritage throughout the series,” Van Dusen says. “And you also see the close bond that exists in this family. I always wanted to see and do and hear things that aren’t normally seen or done or heard in your typical period pieces, and the Sharmas are very much a reflection of that.”
As we near the season two premiere of Bridgerton on March 25, let’s get to know the Sharmas a little more, courtesy of the photos below and insight from Ashley, Chandran, Conn, Van Dusen, and series executive producer Shonda Rhimes.
Kate and Edwina don’t go anywhere without their trusty fourth wheel, Newton, the Sharma family dog. Newton — played by Austin, who appeared as one of Queen Elizabeth’s corgis in The Windsors: Inside the Royal Dynasty — is partial to Kate but helps all three women in weeding out disingenuous suitors and would-be friends with his keen sense of smell for BS and utter devotion to his humans. Even if the dog does leave hair on Kate’s dresses, she’s always happy to have him on her lap or by her feet.
During the marriage mart season, the Sharmas find a home with Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), who accompanies them to the many balls while trying to help with Edwina’s courtships. But Kate, ever the protective older sister, thinks she’s got it all covered. “The first season was about the constraints that women feel being trapped in the marriage mart,” says Bridgerton executive producer Shonda Rhimes. “Season two builds on that … and through Kate, we’re seeing the sense of responsibility that goes along with being a woman who doesn’t want to get married but who wants to get her sister married. And that’s wonderful.”
“Mary comes from a long line of deep-rooted aristocracy in England,” says Shelley Conn. Thus, she knows the ins and outs of the ton personally. “I suppose that makes her quite an original because a lot of Bridgerton speaks to the theme of love versus duty and what is marriage. Is it purely a contractual obligation between two people that will justify families to keep going forward? Or is there an element that allows for true love? That’s a question that Mary had to deal with in her past. She chose love.”
Showcasing sisterhood was just as important as any romantic dynamic for this season. When Edwina falls for Anthony against Kate’s wishes, their sisterly bond is put to the test — a strain that has perhaps been bubbling for some time, given Kate spending her entire life looking after her younger sister and putting Edwina’s needs above her own. “That makes for a very interesting dynamic between the Sharma sisters,” says Van Dusen. “In the writers’ room, we always talk about making our female characters more than just mere props. We want them to be complicated, flawed, and human. To me, that makes the best kind of character because they feel real.”
“Making the Sharmas of South Asian descent was actually a very simple choice,” says Rhimes. “I wanted to feel like the world we were living in was as three-dimensional as possible, and I wanted to feel like the representation was as three-dimensional as possible too. Finding some South Asian women with darker skin and making sure that they were represented on-screen authentically and truthfully feels like something that we haven’t seen nearly enough of.”
In weaving in the understanding that the Sharmas come from another culture, season two seamlessly helps viewers understand that the very English values of most of the Bridgerton characters are not the only values worth having. Sometimes that’s reflected in Kate’s reaction to English tea — she’s not a fan — and sometimes it’s more subtle. Ultimately, the reason for incorporating human stories from around the globe is because Netflix has a global audience, which the show’s creators and producers want to celebrate. “We wanted to make sure that if you were watching Bridgerton from another country, you’re not thinking to yourself, ‘Well, this has nothing to do with me,’” says Rhimes. “Well, absolutely it has something to do with you. The humanity in every character should feel universal.”
Kate and Anthony are alike in many ways — which, of course, makes them despise each other most of the time. Whoever said opposites attract was definitely on to something. But like-minded people attract too. It’s just a lot feistier. One of Kanthony’s similarities is how competitive they are, and Kate, who is well-versed in many more activities than ladies back then were meant to be, shows Anthony what’s what on an outing involving hunting and horseback riding. But what really fuels their tension is that Kate and Anthony both put their families before anything else — even themselves and their own needs and wants.
Bridgerton has its fair share of siblings, of course. The entire premise is based on a family of eight of them! But season two is the first time viewers see two sisters who are as bonded as Edwina and Kate. Their relationship, however, isn’t without its complexities — there’s more than meets the eye. “What struck me about Edwina was how kind and genuine she [is],” says Chandran. “I think now, especially in this pandemic, we’re all desperate for kind and genuine people. And that’s what Edwina Sharma is; to be able to play a character like that was really wonderful. She’s both playful and youthful but also has this sense of maturity to her, this wisdom. And as the season progresses, you really see that. You see how well-rounded and full this person actually is.”
“It’s a very female-heavy dynamic,” says Ashley. “We’ve got Kate, her younger sister Edwina, and their mother, Mary. Unfortunately, they lost their father a while ago. Sometimes a death in the family can split a family apart, but luckily it’s brought the three of them together. Kate’s taken on the role of caring for Mary and Edwina, and I think she can be quite controlling. She tends to make decisions on everyone else’s behalf a little bit, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. Mary is still processing and grieving the loss of her husband, and there’s a lot of trauma for her coming back to England and facing the ton. That puts a lot of responsibility onto Kate to take care of Edwina and make sure she’s being married off in the right way. She feels a lot of duty as the other sibling. Kate’s not coming to London wanting a husband or to be married herself, so she is totally focused on Edwina.”
“Simone Ashley as Kate Sharma is a force to be reckoned with,” says Van Dusen. “When we were casting Kate Sharma, we needed someone who had that ‘take no prisoners’ attitude. We needed someone strong and sharp. And Simone is absolutely all of that, but she also brings this very vulnerable side out of Kate. The layers that Simone has infused into this character are astonishing. You’re rooting for Kate. You want Kate to put Anthony in his place. But you also want Kate to open up, to fall in love, and to let her guard down. I think that’s very much a testament to Simone’s performance.”
Kate can hold her own among the Bridgerton men, but part of her tough exterior is a veil covering the more tender parts of herself that even she seems to have a hard time finding. The fears and responsibilities to which she devotes herself are a product of earlier trauma in her life — losing her biological mother and then losing her father. But Mary has never treated her with anything but unconditional love. Perhaps it’s a lesson for Kate to take in her own journey to becoming a fully formed woman.
“Sometimes when you meet someone who has qualities that you see within yourself, they can frustrate and annoy you,” says Ashley. “That’s what happens a lot with Kate and Anthony; it takes one to know one, and they are incredibly similar. They’re forced to spend a lot of time with each other because of the situation and how it all pans out, and soon that frustration turns into something a bit more playful, a bit more tender. There are all these things that they find annoying about each other, but it’s because they hold a mirror up to one another.”
Valentina Valentini is a London-based entertainment, travel, and food writer and also a Senior Contributor for Shondaland. Elsewhere she has written for Vanity Fair, Vulture, Variety, Thrillist, Heated, and The Washington Post. Her personal essays can be read in the Los Angeles Times, Longreads, and her tangents and general complaints can be seen on Twitter at @ByValentinaV.
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