A Swoon-Filled Family Tree
The Bridgerton Prequel Might Be Setting Up Another Spinoff
These neighbors have known the Bridgertons for ages and have plenty of their own juicy love stories.
When it comes to Bridgerton love stories, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. In a newly announced prequel series, fans will finally watch young Violet and Edmund Bridgerton spark a romance so powerful that their children spend their adult lives trying to live up to it, or occasionally run from it.
Netflix confirmed the untitled limited series on Thursday, Oct. 8, with Shonda Rhimes and Nicholas Nardini writing and showrunning. Like Queen Charlotte before it, the show is positioned to expand the Bridgerton world in swoony fashion. Some fans think it could also be setting up a spinoff focused on another family from Julia Quinn’s literary universe: the Rokesbys.
ICYMI, Quinn’s Rokesbys series is a collection of four prequel novels set in the late 1700s. The titular family are the Bridgertons’ neighbors, close friends, and sometimes partners, and like the flagship series, each book follows a different sibling’s love story. The first, for example, follows eldest son George Rokesby and his relationship with Billie Bridgerton, Edmund’s big sister.
Violet and Edmund aren’t main characters in the Rokesbys books, but they pop up several times as part of the extended family. As the series goes on, you even meet some of the next generation of Bridgertons as kids. (Little Anthony and Benedict running around while Violet minds baby Colin? Adorable.)
Several viewers have theorized that Violet’s prequel will weave in the Rokesbys to some degree. Others go a step further and predict the new show will serve as a launchpad for a separate Rokesbys series. The prequel could “introduce the idea of an adaptation of the Rokesbys series,” one fan on Reddit noted.
“This kind of feels like a backdoor pilot to see if audiences would like the Rokesbys,” another agreed. Several commenters added that the Rokesbys books are their favorites in the entire Bridgerton universe, which is high praise for a family that hasn’t made it to screen yet.
Fans have been pining for a Rokesbys series for years, and the timing feels especially opportune. As Bridgerton heads into its second half of love stories, Netflix should start thinking about the franchise’s future, which, as of writing, ranks among the streamer’s most popular TV seasons.
