Shonda Rhimes Reveals Which Bridgerton Star Could Lead the Next Spin-Off
The wait is over: the fan favorite steps out of the shadows and into the spotlight she’s more than earned.
Bridgerton is still gliding through its victory lap. Season 4 just wrapped with Benedict Bridgerton finally catching feelings, Queen Charlotte is still a hit in the rearview, and five years in, the show does not look close to running out of steam.
Shonda Rhimes is already eyeing the next dance
Shonda Rhimes says more Bridgerton spin-offs are not a maybe but a plan. On a recent podcast stop, she said there will "definitely" be more, calling that corner of the franchise "an area that we’re excited about and know that that could be really rich and really mined well." She has also been circling one character for a while now: Violet Bridgerton.
Rhimes has said before, "I think Violet is fascinating. And there’s a story to be told there." She doubled down again, adding, "I’ve always said that I thought that if we were gonna do something like that, Violet would be a great person to tell the story about, the Bridgerton mom."
Nothing is stamped and sealed yet, but the signs are pretty loud: a Violet spin-off looks like the one to beat.
Why Violet makes sense right now
Violet (Ruth Gemmell), mother of the eight Bridgerton siblings, has spent three seasons nudging her kids toward happy endings. Season 4 finally put her in a romance of her own with Lord Anderson (Daniel Francis). It was tender, it was classy, and then she chose her independence and they parted ways. That choice sets her up for something richer than a neat bow: a woman redefining what she wants, with or without a suitor.
There’s also a clean format sitting right there. Queen Charlotte worked because it split time between present-day intrigue and a formative past. A Violet series could mirror that: Violet navigating life and love now, intercut with the early-days courtship between a young Violet and Edmund Bridgerton. We met Edmund (Rupert Evans) in Season 2 flashbacks; in the show’s timeline, he died about a decade before the main series begins. That history is loaded, personal, and already baked into the family’s DNA.
The book runway is ready
Julia Quinn, whose novels fuel the series, wrote a Violet-centric novella called "Violet in Bloom" in her 2013 collection The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After. It follows Violet and Edmund’s early lives. If Rhimes wants a spine for the spin-off, that’s an easy place to start.
- Who we’d likely see: Ruth Gemmell as Violet in the present, Rupert Evans as Edmund in the past, with the door cracked for Daniel Francis as Lord Anderson if the story checks in on that chapter.
- How it could play: A dual-timeline romance like Queen Charlotte, balancing a mature love story with a first-love origin.
- Where this fits: Cleanly between ongoing Bridgerton seasons, without stepping on the main show’s toes.
Meanwhile, back on the main show...
Season 4 delivered on Benedict Bridgerton’s long-teased arc, pairing Luke Thompson’s bohemian dreamer with Sophie Baek, a whip-smart maid played by Yerin Ha. It was swoony without sanding off Benedict’s edges, which is not easy. Also worth noting: we finally know which Bridgertons are stepping into the spotlight after brother Benedict.
Netflix has already locked in Seasons 5 and 6. The current chatter puts Season 5 on track for as early as 2027. Yes, that’s a wait, but this world still has runway for days.
Bottom line
Bridgerton keeps doing what it does best: romance at an operatic scale, character-first storytelling, and the occasional left turn that actually works. If Violet gets her own series — and all signs point to yes — expect something intimate, bittersweet, and quietly devastating in the best way. In other words: exactly the right kind of trouble for this universe.