“When you watch TV, you should be able to see people who look like you,” said Shonda Rhimes, producer and showrunner of “Bridgerton”

Shonda Rhimes is synonymous with success. It has to its credit one of the longest-running series in television history: Grey's Anatomy, which shares together with Law and Order and CSI (with all its derivations) the podium of the fictions that have been on the air the longest.

“I wanted to make sure that, if you're watching Bridgerton from another country, you don't think: 'This has nothing to do with me, '” said this queen of fiction, who generated great successes (and big profits) with Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Private Practice, Station 19 and the recent Inventing Anna.

Judging by the impact that Bridgerton, the first title to emerge from a long-term trade agreement between Rhimes and Netflix, has caused, there is no risk whatsoever. The series, based on Julia Quinn's book saga, reached an impressive 82 million viewers in its first four weeks.

— When did you realize that the first season of Bridgerton had become a global phenomenon?

“It was a very special moment to discover that Bridgerton had connected with that large audience. It happened right after the premiere; I started getting texts and emails in which people told me that they had seen the series and that they were amazed at it.

Rhimes was born in Chicago in 1970 and is a screenwriter as well as director and producer of many of her projects. As a showrunner (the person responsible for the whole series), he rose among the best and founded his own production company, Shondaland.

In 2017, Rhimes signed a millionaire deal with Netflix that included the production of series, movies, video games and virtual reality, which included his historical co-worker, Betsy Beers. The most recent of those projects, the second season of Bridgerton, will be released on Friday, March 25.

Created by Chris Van Dusen and produced by Rhimes, the series won over the audience with the love story between Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and the Duke of Hastings (Regé Jean-Page, the revelation of the series that does not appear in the second installment).

“I know people miss the duke of season 1,” he acknowledged about Page's departure from the cast. Everyone fell in love with his character in the previous season. But our job, basically, is to tell the story of one of the Bridgerton brothers every season. The duke was amazing in season 1, Anthony is incredible in season 2, and that's the charm of the series. We follow a couple closely, we witness a complete story that ends without drama but leaves us wanting a new season.

He stressed: “That's the goal of each season: to get so involved with a couple that you can't imagine seeing the next one without them.” And he anticipated: “This season it is up to Kate and Anthony, a story that is going to be spectacular.”

The background of the story — presented in the first season, which premiered on December 25, 2020 — is the life of the Bridgerton family, formed by Lady Violet (Ruth Gemmell), Viscountess and widow of Bridgerton, and their eight children: the boys Anthony (Jonathan Bailey), Benedict (Luke Thompson), Colin (Luke Newton) and Gregory (Will Tilston) and women Daphne, Eloise (Claudia Jessie), Francesca (Ruby Stokes) and Hyacinth (Florence Hunt).

Bridgerton was temporarily set during the regency period in the United Kingdom and was dazzled by its visual quality. The grand ballrooms of Mayfair and the aristocratic palaces of Park Lane accompanied love stories as well as the elaborate social norms of coexistence and power games between families.

—Considering how successful the first season was, how did the creative team approach the realization of this second season?

“Bridgerton's creative team is fantastic. This season we added a couple of special, surprising things that I think fans will love. But everything is in the glamor of the dances, the beauty of the locations, the makeup and the spectacular hairstyles - everything that the audience expects from the series. The design, the costumes: everything is still there. We have raised the bar a little in terms of how to tell the story. In season 1 of Bridgerton we had to incorporate the characters into a universe, and now people know it well. Our new goal is to go deeper into them, give the public an idea of what is happening and show them how that world works.

Despite the fact that the leadership as the most watched series on the platform was overshadowed by Squid Game, which surpassed Bridgerton with 1,685 million viewing hours in the first month of release, the Rhimes series stood firm in second place, and hopes to exceed or repeat these numbers in this new delivery.

The second season will focus on the character of Anthony Bridgerton, viscount and older brother of the clan, who sets himself the goal of abandoning his adventures with various women and finding a wife. Among so many candidates who want to win him over (who don't finish convincing the seducer) he will meet Kate (Simone Ashley) fortuitously.

She and her younger sister, Edwina (Charithra Chandran), arrived from India along with Kate's stepmother and Edwina's mother. As Anthony begins to court Edwina, a stream of love seems to emerge between him and the young woman's sister.

“Kate and Anthony are such an interesting couple that I really wanted to make sure their essence was captured,” Rhimes told Infobae.

—This romantic plot replaces the love story of Daphne and Simon: what will fans see in the love story between Anthony and Kate?

—A surprising love triangle between them and Edwina, who is a wonderfully intelligent and complex woman on her own merit.

—The story includes misconceptions and frustrations: can you tell us about that forbidden love and the love-hate theme this season?

“I love the fact that from the beginning Kate and Anthony are seen as dog and cat. They have nothing in common and they don't like each other. There have been a series of misunderstandings between the two that led to Kate forming an opinion about who Anthony is, and that idea is strengthened throughout history. There is something wonderful about taking the concept of the indomitable woman and turning her into a real, three-dimensional woman as opposed to how men represented [someone like that] in the past.

While Kate is perceived “as a woman with her own way of thinking, determined to protect her family and sister,” as the creator described, Anthony sees himself “as a man struggling to stay within the canons imposed by society, but that doesn't work with Kate around.”

Rhimes was enthusiastic: “That's exciting. You see him free from what is expected of him, and you see her fighting the desire to protect her sister. It's the kind of romance where people just can't be apart. For me that is the most exciting kind of story to tell, and I really enjoy doing it. Seeing these characters deal with that is wonderful.”

The second season will also deal with the back and forth of the Featheringtons, who must welcome the new heir of the family, and the story of Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), one of the most interesting characters in the series, who keeps the information of those close to them to be published in a newspaper as gossip. And, in the same way as the first, it will take into account the issues of inclusion, to which Shonda herself is no stranger: she had to face prejudice within the industry because she was a woman and African-American.

— Bridgerton excels in creating a universe with a multicultural cast. Why is that so important to the identity of the series?

“I don't think it's important just for the identity of the series, but [also] for television and programs in general. The idea that we don't create worlds that look like ours, that we invent societies where each person is a certain type of individual, or is of a certain color, or whatever, seems a little honest to me. It also seems exclusive to me. We are interested in never deleting anyone. That's how we work in Shondaland, that's how we tell stories. While it's important to Bridgerton, it's important to others too. When you watch TV, you should be able to see people who look like you.

That's how this season included the South Asian Sharma family. “I wanted the world we live in to feel as three-dimensional as possible, and I wanted representation to be as three-dimensional as possible. Finding some South Asian women with dark skin and making sure they were portrayed on screen in a genuine and true way is something we haven't seen enough. I felt it was time to give it as much visibility as possible,” said Rhimes.

Rhimes's mother finished her university career while raising her three children, and in doing so she gave Shonda the ability to overcome and effort. The creator is known for being strict in her work (she doesn't allow actors to improvise or change lines of scripts) and she doesn't hesitate to eliminate central characters from her fictions if she doesn't like some attitude. This is what Patrick Dempsey, the beloved Doctor Shepard of Grey's Anatomy, and actress Katherine Heigl, Dr. Izzie Stevens, are tragically eliminated in the series without much explanation.

For now Bridgerton is coming to the lanes of harmony and the showrunner who knew how to venture into cinema with the films Crossroads: Friends Forever (2002), with Britney Spears, and The Princess Diary 2 (2004), with Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, is super excited about this new season. There are even rumors that some characters might have spinoffs.

The one about Queen Charlotte (played by Golda Rosheuvel) is the closest to achieving her own series, as the journey through which she became queen has generated a lot of curiosity.

— What did you want to expand with the story of Queen Charlotte specifically?

“They always ask me about the matter of Queen Charlotte. My answer to the fans is that they will have to wait and see. I love the idea that I'm going to explore what romance meant to Queen Charlotte, and who Lady Danbury and Lady Violet were at the time. Seeing all that information being shared as we write the scripts is really fascinating. For me, it will be one of the most exciting things we've ever done. You know these women, you've seen them, you know how they are as adults: now you're going to know how the women they are. And that's a very exciting way to tell a story. But I won't reveal any spoilers!

Bridgerton returns with its second season on March 25 to Netflix.

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