Bridgerton: The Biggest Differences Between The Books And The TV Show

The Netflix period drama hasn't always stayed completely loyal to its source material.

All on-screen adaptations of books make changes and take creative license with the original source material, and Bridgerton is no exception.

Over the last four seasons, the Netflix period drama has made a number of significant changes to Julia Quinn’s series of romance books when bringing them to life for the small screen.

When original showrunner Chris Van Dusen first took on the task of bringing Julia’s world to Netflix in 2020, he knew he’d have to make some changes and modernise the stories of regency romance.

“Even though the show is set in the 19th century, I still wanted modern audiences to be able to relate to it,” he told Oprah Mag in 2020.

As a result, the book makes numerous tweaks to the source material, switching key romances, making major changes to some characters and cutting others completely, helping to create the show the whole world has become obsessed with.

Here are 13 of the biggest differences between Julia Quinn’s books and the Netflix show…

Queen Charlotte, a real historical figure who was married to King George III, is not featured in the Bridgerton books

It’s hard to imagine Bridgerton without Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte, gossiping in court while sporting her fabulous headwear.

However, the real-life royal never actually appeared as a character in Julia Quinn’s book series. In fact, Queen Charlotte is only mentioned once in the novels, when she’s briefly spoken about in passing during the sixth book.

Original showrunner Chris admitted that he wanted to expand the world of Bridgerton through the monarch who was on the throne in 1813, when the first series takes place.

“What really struck me with the books from the beginning is that this was an opportunity to marry history and fantasy in a really exciting, interesting way,” he explained to Oprah magazine.

Julia Quinn loved this addition, even admitting she wished she had thought of it herself.

“I go back and forth between wishing I had actually written her in the books and then being glad I didn’t, because I don’t know if I could have done as good a job,” Julia added.

Julia would later write a prequel book about Queen Charlotte – which was itself adapted for Netflix in the show’s first spin-off – inspired by her addition to the Bridgerton universe.

“I had never done any type of writing where I had source material before and especially to have source material that’s in a very specific structure,” Julia told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. “So what you really have to do is break down the architecture of a television script and then figure out how to put the pieces back together as a novel. To somebody like me who loves puzzles, it is really fun.”

The Bridgerton TV show puts a much greater emphasis on Lady Whistledown than the books

Much of season one revolved around the mystery surrounding gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, later revealed to be the alter-ego of Nicola Coughlan’s character, Penelope Featherington.

But the Whistledown saga is a much smaller plot point in the books.

Although the notorious columns appear in the novels at the beginning of some chapters, it’s not revealed who is actually behind them until the fourth novel.

In the books, Colin learns about Penelope’s alter ego before Eloise, and even before he proposes. Conversely, in the Netflix series, Eloise learns that her close friend, Penelope, is Lady Whistledown at the end of season two, which causes a rift between them.

Meanwhile, because Queen Charlotte is not a character, there isn’t an investigation into Lady Whistledown in the novels.

As for why they kept Colin in the dark for so long about his love interest’s hobby in the show, showrunner Jess Brownwell told Vanity Fair: “After Colin took so long to figure out his feelings for Penelope, we wanted to live in the love bubble between Colin and Pen a little bit longer before the Whistledown secret came out.”

She pointed out: “It also amps up the tension for him to find out when he does, because Pen has now held it from him much........

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