“Queen Charlotte” opens with a picturesque shot of a mansion in Germany. This is the house of the young Charlotte (India Amarteifio) and her family, the Mecklenburg-Strelitzes.
In fact, if fans look carefully at the flowers as the camera pans into the estate, the arrangement depicts the Mecklenburg-Strelitz family’s coat of arms. The Mecklenburg-Strelitzes were a real royal family from the 18th century.
The opening scene shows the stark difference between the English and Germans through costume.
Throughout “Queen Charlotte,” multiple characters express how Charlotte’s home country of Germany is more progressive and fanciful than England. This is presented clearly in the opening scene.
For starters, while the British royal staff is all white, Charlotte’s servants are of various racial ethnicities.
Even the black-and-gold costumes of the German servants are eyecatching, whereas the British servants, shown later in the episode, dress more modestly in blues and reds.
IN the title sequence, Charlotte’s reflections and shadows have longer hair, foreshadowing her future.
The title sequence of “Queen Charlotte” differs from the flagship show by showing an animated version of Charlotte on her journey to becoming queen.
What is interesting is that the animated Charlotte has short hair, but all the reflections and shadows of Charlotte depict her with large wigs.
This contrasts appears to hint at the journey that young Charlotte goes on to become the Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) we know and love.
In the series, young Charlotte (Amarteifio) also wears shorter wigs at first, but they grow in size as the story progresses.
There is an homage to “The Godfather Part II” in the transitions between the two timelines.
Unlike “Bridgerton,” “Queen Charlotte” is set in two timelines. A past timeline exploring young Charlotte’s journey and a later timeline featuring the older Charlotte we know and love.
During a panel for the show at the Paley Center for Media earlier this month, director Tom Verica said that the series pays homage to “The Godfather Part II” when it transitions between the two timelines.
Verica said they looked at a lot of examples but were inspired by “The Godfather” scenes where shots dissolve into each other when the narrative moves from Michael Corleone to young Vito Corleone.
According to a press pack, director of photography Jefferey Jur also gave different atmospheric colors to each timeline to differentiate them. The earlier timeline has a green “dreamy and ethereal” look, while the later timeline is “cooler blue” since it is set in wintertime.
While Lady Whistledown narrates the series, we never get a glimpse of Penelope in the spinoff show.
Fans of “Bridgerton” will know that Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews), the mysterious writer and narrator of both the flagship show and “Queen Charlotte,” is none other than our beloved wallflower, Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan).
However, while Lady Whistledown is still handing out her gossip sheets, we never see Penelope at work.
The closest nod to Penelope secretly being Whistledown is in episode five when adult Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) mentions that her daughters, Penelope and Eloise, are fighting, which is a callback to their big fight at the end of season two when Eloise discovered Penelope’s secret.
In “Queen Charlotte,” Lady Whistledown is narrating life outside of the social season and is focused completely on the royal family, which seems out of character for Penelope. This could mean that Penelope has thrown herself into her work after fighting with Eloise (Claudia Jessie).
Lady Whistledown’s gossip sheet dubs the late Princess Charlotte, “The People’s Princess.”
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