While Bridgerton fans were hoping to see season 3 of the hit Netflix series drop sometime this spring, that doesn’t seem likely at this point. Fortunately, in the meantime, they’ve gotten what might be just the next best thing: Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, a prequel/spinoff/semi-standalone story all in one.
So just how much Queen Charlotte is there for fans of horny period dramas to enjoy? There are six episodes of the approximately hour-long series, so about six hours in total. This may not seem like much, but it’s not too far off from the first two seasons of Bridgerton Proper, each of which includes just eight episodes.
Even if they’re disappointed in the truncated runtime, viewers are bowing down to the Queen. According to The Wrap, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story has already amassed more than 22 million views since it dropped less than a week ago on May 4 (hey, not everyone is a Star Wars fan). That’s enough fervor to put the series in Netflix’s Top 10 most watched English-language TV shows in a whopping 91 countries worldwide.
The prequel series flashes back and forth between two time periods: The Bridgerton era in which we first met Queen Charlotte (played by Golda Rosheuvel) — in this case, 1817, following the death of royal heir Princess Charlotte — and 1761, the year Charlotte met/married King George.
“For me, it was important that there be an origin — that we weren’t just presenting this amazing colorblind society,” Bridgerton creator Shonda Rhimes recently told The Wrap of the decision to create a Queen Charlotte spinoff.