If you ask showrunner Chris Van Dusen, the underlying ethos of Bridgerton — Shondaland’s Netflix Regency series — has always been to reimagine the stuffy world in which London’s high society lived and played during the early 1800s. It was a time known as the Regency period — where excess, decadence, beauty and glamour ruled. But, for Van Dusen, bringing this world to life on the small screen is also about something else.
“I think we’re unapologetically romantic,” says the Bridgerton executive producer, and longtime collaborator of Shonda Rhimes. “This is pure escapism. And that’s something I think we could all use right now.”
Indeed, viewers are in for a scrumptious, drama-filled treat, all thanks to the creative fingertips of Van Dusen and his team, who worked tirelessly to build this new, visually stunning world.
Ultimately, Van Dusen wants us all to take note that Bridgerton is not a history lesson: “It is lavish, vibrant, big and bold, steamy, fun, funny and emotional,” he says. Based on the uber-popular, New York Times best-selling book series by Julia Quinn, Bridgerton the show centers on the Bridgerton family and their ups and downs and ins and outs of the ton — that’s “town,” for all you Bridgerton newbies.
Van Dusen, who rose through the ranks at Shondaland writing and producing for, most notably, Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal devoured Quinn’s stories after Rhimes gave him a copy of the eight-book series three years ago to see if it might be something he’d be interested in developing. In it, he saw elements of his favorite types of storytelling: romance, sex, intrigue, all with a powerful family at the core.
“I’ve always loved period shows — the sets, the costumes, the rules — they’re so rife with conflict,” he says. “But at the same time, I think they’re considered a bit traditional and conservative. With Bridgerton, I wanted to take everything I loved about a period show and turn it into something fresh, topical and relatable.”
Adapting Quinn’s first book, The Duke and I, for the first season of Bridgerton was no small task for Van Dusen and Shondaland to take on. The book series has been translated into 29 languages, has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers list over a dozen times, and boasts a fierce fan following world-wide numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Quinn, who has supported the project from the beginning and through production, told Van Dusen after reading his scripts that she never would have thought to approach the adaptation like this, but that she’s convinced it’s the only way to do it.
“I think [adapting existing IP] added some healthy pressure,” says Van Dusen, pointing to the challenges of creating any new show. “The feedback from the book fans has been so encouraging and they seem to be excited to see this adaptation. I’m as excited to share it with them.”
One of Van Dusen’s goals with the show was to explore the other side of proper Regency London. During this era, there were endless aristocratic rules to follow and a strict order bound many parts of daily life — probably nothing so tantamount as the marriage mart, a century’s old institution when eligible young ladies secured eligible young men for the purpose of carrying on their family line. This “mart” is actually just a series of balls where young women and men can dance and chat under the protective — and judgmental — eyes of the entire town. Not so romantic, huh? But, in a world where family name and lineage was everything, people knew both what was expected of them and how to behave accordingly in order to reach certain aristocratic goals.
Van Dusen wanted to tap into the opposite end of that, how some members of society also knew what not to do and how not to behave — but did it anyway. “That’s, of course, what made things really fun,” he adds. “That’s the area we live in on Bridgerton.”
If this feels like a modern twist, that’s because it is. Bridgerton unravels through a unique, modern lens that reveals itself at various levels of the production. The tone is spirited and daring with fast-talking characters and sharp, witty banter. It’s also really, really sexy, which is something only a handful of period shows have explored, despite how commonplace — even expected — somewhat salacious details are in romance novels.
Though the show is set in the early 19th century, the themes of Bridgerton are, in fact, both timeless and universal. Further, the series deftly address very modern, relatable issues, like wanting a successful partnership while also maintaining one’s own autonomy, and reconciling your public-persona with your private one. Though the show’s look is rooted in Regency fashion and design, Van Dusen — along with his costume designer Ellen Mirojnik, production designer Will Huge-Jones, hair and makeup team headed by Marc Pilcher, and cinematographer Jeffrey Jur, ASC — has created a fresh youthful and effervescent feel with colors, textures and materials throughout costumes, hairstyles and sets that give the entire world a heightened reality, a feast-for-the-eyes and a way to stay away from drab period dramas.
Probably the most obvious modernization is with the casting. Though race isn’t discussed in the books, Van Dusen was adamant that he wanted the show to reflect the world in which we live. It’s a mainstay of all Shondaland’s shows, and Bridgerton posed a unique opportunity to have a multiracial cast with a period piece.
“We want modern audiences to relate to the story and to see themselves on screen,” says Van Dusen. “The show thrives in the space of being relatable to whoever’s watching, no matter who you are, so having such a diverse group of characters affords us the ability to explore such an array of storylines. Race is as much a part of the show’s conversation as class and gender are.”
Van Dusen — aided by an on-set historian, Hannah Greig, and long conversations with lead Regé-Jean Page and Adjoa Andoh, who plays Lady Danbury, about the backstories of their characters — used Queen Charlotte (Golda Resheuval) as a center piece to weave racial equality into the show. Queen Charlotte, who was married to King George III from 1761 until her death in 1818, is widely accepted as England’s first royal of mixed race. Many historians claim that she descends from Black Portuguese royals, which links to African lineage. That history was something that really resonated with Van Dusen.
“It made me wonder what she could have done if she had used her power to elevate other people of color in society?” he says. “Could she have given them titles and Dukedoms?”
From the very first days in the writers’ room to the impending premiere, Van Dusen has striven for Bridgerton to be relevant to today. Underneath all the lavish glamour and the escapism, he sought to have a running modern commentary about how, over the last 200 years, everything has changed, and nothing has changed, for both women and men.
“We’re talking about and exploring things like family and sexuality and relationships and dating,” says Van Dusen. “They had courtships in Regency times, but instead of with Tinder today, they were just swiping left and right at the ball.”
Van Dusen also wanted to explore the power of the written word. Lady Whistledown, a faceless narrator played by Julie Andrews who is the secret author of the town’s Society Papers, publishes a newsletter of sorts that runs down all the town’s gossip. Someone like Lady Whistledown, the one-woman Regency tabloid factory, can shift public opinion, just as magazines, tabloids and social media do today. He adds: “In my mind, social media is kind of like a modern-day corset.”
Through and through, building the world of Bridgerton for the last three years has been Van Dusen’s only focus. And when you live so long with something in your head to see it all come together on the screen has been a real “aha” moment for the showrunner. “You hire all of these amazing people, this incredible, massive cast, crew and you never really know how it’s going to turn out,” he marvels. “It’s truly surpassed any expectations.”
Valentina Valentini is a London-based entertainment, travel and food writer for Vanity Fair, Vulture, Variety, Thrillist, Heated, The Washington Post many more. Her personal essays can be read in the Los Angeles Times, and Longreads. Her tangents and general complaints can be seen on Twitter at @ByValentinaV.
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