Audiences know, by now, how special Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is within Shondaland’s eponymous Regency Era franchise. However, before the miniseries hit Netflix earlier this year, before it even went into production, lead editors Matt Pevic and Denise Chan immediately knew it was going to be a hit, and it’s precisely because Tom Verica was slated to be in the director’s chair and Shonda Rhimes herself was writing each episode.
“They really made their match in Scandal,” Pevic said in our Zoom interview. “They’re wonderful together, they know each other’s rhythms, they understand one another. So, when I heard Tom would be directing all the episodes of Queen Charlotte, I was like, ‘How do I get on board?'”
Of course, neither Pevic nor Chan are strangers to the world of Shondaland. Pevic served as assistant editor early on in his career on Private Practice before taking the lead on Scandal, How to Get with Murder, Inventing Anna, and Season 2 of Bridgerton. Chan followed a similar path, albeit more recently, assisting Pevic on Inventing Anna and Bridgerton. Then, for Queen Charlotte, Pevic and Chan were lead editors on the first two episodes, “Queen to Be” and “Honeymoon Bliss,” respectively.
“Prior to Shondaland, I was editing promos and trailers for a long time,” said Chan,” so when it came to Queen Charlotte, I was so excited because this story is so different from Bridgerton in terms of the pacing and tone.”
Matt Pevic on Setting Queen Charlotte’s Tone in Episode 1
A prequel and spin-off of Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte focuses on the titular young woman’s unexpected marriage to King George and her subsequent adjustment to royal life, which includes learning about her newfound duties as queen, navigating 18th-Century English politics as the country prepares to herald in a new social era, and, more importantly, acquainting herself with the king’s secrets. In addition to the past, Queen Charlotte traces “present-day” Charlotte’s (Golda Rosheuvel returning to the role) efforts to secure a legitimate heir and solidify the legacy of her husband’s bloodline.
“I really wanted to be first up. I wanted that chance to help set the tone and help set the world a little bit through editorial,” said Pevic. “This is one of the best characters in the Bridgerton world. Charlotte is fascinating, and to be able to explore her backstory was just a pleasure.”
According to Pevic, the biggest challenge of taking on Episode 1 of Queen Charlotte was making a new story in an already established world feel unique yet familiar to fans. What excited him the most, in addition to diving into fan-favorite characters like Queen Charlotte, Lady Danbury, and Violet Bridgerton, was the structure of Charlotte and George’s romance.
“The marriage happens in the first episode of our show,” he said, noting how Seasons 1 and 2 of Bridgerton showed the natural progression of their romances from meet-cute to marriage. “[Queen Charlotte] is about how you maintain a marriage throughout real hardships, mental health problems, managing a country — they have super high stakes in their marriage throughout the entire season.”
In terms of further distinguishing Queen Charlotte from Bridgerton, scope, narratively and geographically speaking, was a major conversation Pevic had with Verica and Rhimes. “We wanted to bring audiences along into this world, knowing how dark it was probably going to get. That was the line we had to ride: is this going to be fun and happy and exciting and bubblegum and happiness, or is this going to be a little bit of darkness? That was fun.”
He later added, “Tom was really adamant — and I totally agree with this — [about] wanting to see castles in all of their splendor. We wanted to see the fields. We wanted to see as much as possible of these beautiful [locations], so we leaned a little heavier on the wider shots, and it was beautiful.”
Denise Chan on Establishing Charlotte’s Life as a New Queen in Episode 2
If Queen Charlotte Episode 1 is about introductions — of new royalty to Charlotte, and of a new marriage story to Bridgerton fans — then Episode 2 is about the honeymoon, the days after the big celebration as wife and husband start their new life together. For Chan, this episode, which showed Charlotte adjusting to her new routine as wife and Queen, was an exercise in using visuals to tell a story.
“Of the first 30 minutes, I would say 15 to 18 minutes are just pure montage, just pure visuals,” she said of the sequence that illustrates Charlotte repeatedly, waking up, getting dressed by heir maids, touring her new house, learning the rules, and, more importantly, wondering where her husband is and why he isn’t spending time with her. As such, it was a tightrope walk for Chan, having to simultaneously show the splendor of being a new queen alongside her growing disappointment.
“It’s really about Charlotte unraveling, going from a high point to a much lower point, and [at the same time] where do you put all this levity in? It brings it back to pacing because you’re seeing her changing and eating and changing over and over again. Shonda wants you to watch those things. Simple images, but then you realize that it’s not just pretty clothes.”
When asked how she put the montage together, balancing Charlotte’s anger and frustration with the moments of levity Rhimes was looking for, and selecting which of the many, many shots — because there’s a lot of coverage — were used, Chan said it came down to three things: instinct, collaboration, and music. “I based it on my gut-feeling, and then we leaned heavily on music. It’s like cutting a silent film with music. A lot of the montage is [shots of] shoes, hands, etc. — those do not have expressions — so it was about leaning into music to prime viewers and indicate where the moment changes.”
“There’s a lot of cutting and then presenting, and working with Matt is fantastic because I regard him as my first producer,” she added. “I’ll cut something, he’ll look at it, and I’ll get a reaction from him. He’s very good at giving me notes, and so it’s a process of back-and-forth.”
The Great Bridgerton Music Debate
One of the defining features of the Bridgerton franchise is, of course, its classical covers of modern songs. While the Queen Charlotte soundtrack ultimately included these covers (fittingly, only songs from Black women artists), Pevic revealed that, early on, there was much debate on whether to include them in the miniseries. “When we finally decided on doing it, Shonda came in and said, ‘I want to hear Queen Bey. I want to hear Beyoncé in this series.'”
According to Pevic, music is an integral part of Rhimes’ creation process at Shondaland — “Shonda sometimes can’t even see a show without having the right temp music.” — and, for Queen Charlotte in particular, Pevic, Chan, Verica, and Rhimes worked closely with the composer, music supervisors, and music editors during their “spotting sessions,” during which they’d go through each scene in each episode and offer notes on where the music needed to be tweaked or changed.
During one screening of the director’s cut of the show, Pevic revealed a masterful note from Rhimes. “Tom, Denise, and I had all worked really hard — and the rest of the music staff worked really hard — and we were really proud of [the cut]. Shonda saw the cut. She’s like, ‘I love it. I can’t believe it. I love this cut.’ She has notes, usually, but with this one, she was like, ‘This is an amazing show,'” he said. “Then, she said, ‘However, Matt, I’d like you to try something radical: can you rescore this entire show like it’s a sitcom?'” (Ultimately, Pevic revealed, Rhimes wanted to hear everyone in that screening room laugh.)
“She’s bold,” Chan said of Rhimes’ creative genius. “She’s bold in making choices, and she really pushes us out of our comfort zone.”
All episodes of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story are now available to stream exclusively on Netflix.
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