It’s official: Bridgerton season two is a smashing success, breaking Netflix records and becoming its most-viewed English-language series of all time. It’s not hard to see why: fans are obsessed with the romance between Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), and the introduction of the Sharma family to Regency-era London has been an incredible boon for South Asian representation all over the world.
The chemistry between Simone and Jonathan was so special, in fact, that it has led to fans wondering if there’s deleted footage of Kanthony that could one day be released — a question that came up after a few cast and crew interviews referenced scenes that didn’t make it into the final cut. Given the fact that this season is a deliciously slow burn, it’s understandable that fans want to see more. But as creator and showrunner Chris Van Dusen tells Teen Vogue, there are not hours of missing footage waiting to be seen, even if we all wish there were.
Van Dusen assures fans that they all wanted to tell the strongest story possible. That’s something other creatives on the show, like intimacy coordinator Lizzy Talbot, have also said and corroborated. (Talbot said in an interview that they filmed more than what was in the final cut — but explained that was standard practice for TV, and that it also happened in season one. That part of the interview didn’t get picked up as widely.) The show’s creatives don’t want fans to feel as if they’ve been cheated out of a significant number of scenes, because they haven’t been.
Perhaps this can be a reminder that we all want the same thing: hot people making out well-developed characters falling in love, especially in ways we haven’t seen before. And that there’s more Kate and Anthony to look forward to in season three.
Chris Van Dusen spoke to Teen Vogue about the show’s success, the backstory of the Sharma family and Indian representation, the influence of Bollywood movies, whether he’s read Kanthony fanfiction, and more. (Read on to find out about which scene included Kate and Anthony originally dancing to a cover of “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles!)
Teen Vogue: First of all, congratulations. The show has seen incredible success. I imagine it’s not easy to follow up a season one act like that. How are you feeling now? Is the pressure completely gone?
Chris Van Dusen: I don’t know if the pressure will ever be completely gone, especially for this show. I never could have anticipated this kind of response to the show, from season one and now season two. [To] beat the number of viewing hours that season one had, just to see that kind of growth — the fact that people have embraced [Bridgerton] in the way that they did around the world is just surreal, and it’s so humbling.
TV: Has anything about the response or what people in particular have responded to surprised you?
CVD: I feel like I’m most surprised by the number of memes and tweets that I see about the show. The fact that these two young ladies on TikTok created this unofficial Bridgerton musical that just won a Grammy Award — it’s incredible.
TV: Do you have any favorite memes?
CVD: Oh, this season, I love this line, “you are the bane of my existence — and the object of all my desires.” Seeing all those memes with those words, with that line, especially, is incredible.
TV: I saw an interview with Jonathan Bailey where he was like, “I didn’t necessarily expect that to be the line that took off” — I’m sure you can never predict it.
CVD: Yeah, you never know. In the room, we never try to foresee what’s going to be “the moment.” Season one, we didn’t know that the Duke licking his spoon would go viral. Season two, we didn’t know that that line would go viral, or any other number of things that I’ve seen out there.
TV: About the writers’ room process: you’re the creator, you’re the showrunner. You also wrote the first episode — I know there are lead writers on every episode, but there’s also a writers’ room. What does that process look like?
CVD: The process is really collaborative from the start. For me, what was most important was to staff the room with as many different voices as I could find, from the top down, really. I had a room primarily full of women writers; there were some diehard fans of the books, there were some that never read the books, all ages, different backgrounds. I feel like that is important when you’re doing a show like this that’s meant to be representative of the world we live in today. I wanted the writers’ room to look as much like the actual world and these characters and stories that we’re telling as they could. So it’s very collaborative. We all gather, plot out the season together, set the big milestones to hit, and then we outline the episodes together, write the episodes together, give notes together — it’s very much a group effort.
TV: I’ve also read from other interviews, you know, Jonathan, Simone, and Charithra [Chandran, who plays Edwina Sharma] all seem quite invested in their characters. They’ve also spoken about working collaboratively with you and other producers about what goes into the show. So that’s also part of it?
CVD: Absolutely. Season two was great because I knew Jonny, I knew the Bridgertons, I had the voices of those actors in my head already when writing. And part of the beauty of this show is every season we get to switch focus and meet new characters. Obviously, this season we have an entirely new family, the Sharma family, to the world of the Ton. Those were new actors for us. I hadn’t worked with Simone Ashley, or Charithra, or Shelley [Conn, who plays Lady Mary Sharma] before. We write the show, but then when we see the actors in the table read deliver these lines and we see what they do and how they elevate the words in some amazing ways you never thought of, there’s always a little bit of a rewrite process after those table reads. And [it’s] ongoing. The script really is never done until the show is locked. Even in editing, I call the editing process the final rewrite of the show because things change in the editing room: scenes move, lines move. I’m always tinkering with it.
TV: So as showrunner, you are in the editing room, in post-production, looking at everything.
CVD: Yes, and as a sign of our times, this COVID world, I actually edited the majority of the show in my basement. People think that there’s this huge state of the art facility, but because of COVID, we just weren’t able to do that. So I was pretty much in my basement, and God bless my editors for being so patient with me. It was an interesting process because I also have three very small children who would come into the room when I was editing — they actually became a little bit of a benefit to the show because I knew when they would start dancing to the orchestral pop songs that I was putting in, I always knew that was the one to pick and to keep.
TV: Speaking of the music — it’s incredible. I know it’s not always the case that the actual song we see in the final version is the one that was played on set. Can you describe that process?
CVD: The music was definitely something that I found in post-production on the show, after the pilot had been shot. There’s a cut of the Bridgerton pilot somewhere out there that has strictly modern music in it from start to finish. But in viewing that version and sitting with it, it just didn’t feel right to me. So that’s when I went in the complete opposite direction, tried using strictly classical music, and eventually what we landed on are these incredible orchestral covers of these modern day pop songs. The whole intention there is that I really want our audience to feel the very same way our characters feel onscreen. So when the Sharmas are walking into that ballroom [in episode one] and they hear this amazing rendition of Madonna’s “Material Girl,” they’re filled with excitement, hopefully the people watching at home are filled with equal excitement, and it really works. I think it’s really effective and definitely one of the things that I love most about the show.
When we’re shooting those big ballroom scenes, most of the time I change the song that ends up in the final edit. There was an exception in season two, Miley Cyrus's “Wrecking Ball” — I actually wrote that scene to that amazing cover because I just thought it fits so perfectly, with what was happening with Anthony and Kate at the time. It’s a trial and error process of seeing what works. Kate and Anthony’s first dance, to Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own,” which is probably one of my most favorite parts of the season. Robyn is a personal favorite artist of mine, and it’s just such a beautiful, bittersweet, emotional, painful song that fits it so perfectly. But when we were shooting that scene, it was actually set to Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar.” Our amazing choreographer, Jack Murphy, who’s just phenomenal, choreographed that dance to an orchestral cover of “Watermelon Sugar.” By the time I got in the edit, I had found Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own,” and it worked on some even more amazing levels. I had already chosen another Harry Styles song for the wedding in episode six, so that’s how that Robyn cover came to be.
TV: I love it. Every song choice in the final edit is perfect from my viewing point of view, but that’s also funny, it being “Watermelon Sugar” given the now-famous scene with Anthony and Kate in episode seven.
CVD: Yes!
TV: Speaking of the other Harry Styles cover, I think “Sign of the Times” in that whole wedding scene is so beautifully done. Everything from the bangles from Kate’s mother to the “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham” cover — the cast and crew have spoken about it being a color-conscious casted show but not necessarily color-blind. What were those conversations like, about incorporating those elements of Indian culture?
CVD: That cover of “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham” for the haldi ceremony — I asked our composer Kris Bowers to do a version of that song, obviously the beautiful song from this iconic Bollywood movie. It’s about family, about the bonds that hold a family together, and when I heard the original song, I fell in love with it. I thought it was just perfect for a scene featuring all of our Sharma ladies, and it’s a nod to that family’s heritage. In the writers’ room this season, we worked with a number of historical consultants and advisors, and we wanted to honor the background of our new family, and weave certain elements of their heritage throughout the series. That song and that haldi ceremony that you see is an example of that.
I don’t think Bridgerton is a color-blind show, I think things like race and color are very much part of the world. They’re part of the conversation. And Bridgerton wouldn't be Bridgerton without that, without the colorful world that the show is set in. This is a multi-hued, multi-ethnic, beautiful and colorful world. And at the end of the day, the show is for a modern audience, and we want modern audiences to relate to it and to be able to see themselves reflected on screen. It was something we set up in season one, and I wanted season two to further build upon that with the Sharma family. I actually knew when we were writing season one, the story that I wanted to tell with Kate. And to me, our Kate on the show was always going to be of Indian descent. I felt that there was something about this family being from another country altogether that exemplified what we're trying to do and say with this show. And that's to give everyone a voice and to allow everyone, no matter where you're from, a happily ever after. These stories on the show that we're telling, they're not about violence, they're not about trauma. These are stories about romance and love. And what this show really says at the end of the day is that everyone is worthy and capable of having those very things.
TV: And also finding the commonalities in culture and family, too, right?
CVD: Absolutely. And again, my writer's room was instrumental. The consultants that we worked with were instrumental. We worked with an amazing consultant, Dr. Priya Atwal, who was especially helpful when we were coming up with the Sharma family backstory. We all had the same goal as being as authentic as possible, especially when it came to infusing this world with certain details linked to the heritage of this family. So, you know, you hear Kate speak a little Hindi in the first episode. Those are the first words out of her mouth. You see some of the traditions and rituals of this family throughout the season, from the haldi ceremony to the oiling of Edwina’s hair to the bangles that Kate's birth mother gave her. We wanted to see and hear things that aren't traditionally seen or heard in this genre especially, and that's what I love about the show. And again, it's part of what makes Bridgerton Bridgerton.
TV: There's also a lot of common themes with Bollywood movies in general. The build-up is a main one, all of those almost kisses. Have you ever seen a Bollywood movie before? Did you know what a haldi was before this?
CVD: I have seen Bollywood movies before, I am a fan of them. I think they're beautiful and colorful and fun. They share a similarity with Bridgerton in that they're transporting. There's an escapist quality there. I think that's what originally attracted me to writing and creating a show like this, especially considering the difficult times we're all living through. I feel like an escape is really needed, and I think that's what a lot of viewers are responding to and what they what they come to watch Bridgerton for.
TV: Yeah. On a personal note, I have to thank you and say how refreshing the storyline was. I’m an Indian-American woman who married a white American man. It was the source of a lot of strife in my family. I have very traditional parents who were not pleased at first. So it was so interesting to me to see Kate and Anthony deal with the pressure of family obligations, but it have nothing really to do with their cultures.
CVD: Absolutely. I think that was intentional. The underlying narrative arc of the entire series is this question of whether love can conquer all. It always goes back to love, whether that's love of a partner, love of a spouse, love of family, friendship — and most of all, love of yourself. Season two looks at that question through the lens of familial duty. Some of the characters accept the duty that's laid before them, others are outright rebelling against it. That's a theme that the show explores at all levels, really. Anthony and Kate this season are both struggling with the same thing. Whether to follow your head and honor your duty, your so-called familial duty, or to follow your heart and go after what you really and truly feel. Anthony and Kate are very much like mirrors for each other in that regard, and I think seeing someone else going through the very thing you are going through is affirming in a lot of ways. As Kate and Anthony see each other, and they see themselves in each other, what we're really saying is, they're falling in love with each other, but they're also falling in love with themselves at the end of the day.
TV: Now, where did “Kathani” come from?
CVD: It was obviously a nod to Kate, Katherine, in the books. But we fell in love with that name and what the literal translation means. Dr. Atwal was really helpful in coming up with how the Sharma family's lives looked back in India. In our story, Kate and Edwina’s father worked as a respected secretary for a royal court back in Bombay. And so Kate and Edwina grew up in this courtly environment amongst royals who, in our minds, were a bit more progressive. We actually used a figure named Baiza Bai as our model. She was a ruler at the time, she was this queen who was this adept horse rider, she sat astride like the men did, never side saddle, she was this masterful swordswoman and also someone who could handle a firearm. We thought about what a figure like that would mean to a young girl growing up alongside her and with the help of Dr. Atwal, we started to build Kate Sharma’s backstory from there, as a way to understand her affinity for horse riding or the fact that she can shoot just as well as Anthony when she comes to London. All of that was really instrumental in the early stages of building the character that we eventually come to meet as Kate Sharma, Kathani Sharma.
TV: I also wanted to ask if it was intentional to make them sort of pan-Indian: the different language elements that you have, the different references, it goes across a couple of different regions in India.
CVD: Yeah, and in the writers’ room, we talked about that as far as, this was a family who traveled many places in India. Kate was brought up by an English mother, Lady Mary, who grew up in the Ton society of London, who then went back with the love of her life to India. So it’s a combination of cultures there, absolutely.
TV: Now, the Kanthony fandom is powerful, already, and it is growing by the minute. Are you familiar with fanfiction?
CVD: I know of fanfiction. I haven’t, to be honest, read any fanfiction. And I know the fandom has many thoughts [laughs] and opinions. I honestly don’t read the fan theories, not because I don’t think they’re important or don’t want to, simply because it’s too busy — there are so many things happening.
TV: Understandably so*.* It's been funny, like there’s this one fanfiction website, and I'm just watching the number of fics go up every day that people are reading and writing.
CVD: I love it. I love the discussion that the show can provoke, the conversation, I think that tells us that we're doing something right, if that’s happening.
TV: Given the buildup and the incredible chemistry between Simone and Jonny — I know there have been some fans requesting or asking if there are any deleted scenes that would ever be released?
CVD: So, I see this campaign to “release the cut/deleted scenes.” I can be completely honest with you, as far as the intimate scenes, the sex scenes — no intimate or sex scenes were cut from this show. This season, every intimate scene that was scripted made it into the final edit of the show. And you can watch those scenes across the eight episodes of the season. It's always a balance. Like I said before, the editing room is the final rewrite of the show. And what works on the page sometimes needs adjusting and sometimes needs a little reworking. But yeah, there are no big “Bridgerton cuts.”
TV: I hope that’s reassuring for a lot of people.
CVD: Everything is done with the intention of making the best product imaginable. You know, there are hundreds and hundreds of artisans who put their all into this show, from the editors to production designers to the sound mixers to everyone. Every choice was made for the sole reason of making the best product and the best show that it can possibly be.
TV: You said there are no major scenes [cut] or anything. So these little things that are circulating from cast interviews, etc, are they just very small parts that got cut out in the editing room, and that’s all it is?
CVD: Yeah. Any scenes, there are definitely tweaks, whether certain lines, certain words had to be cut for time or just from a storytelling perspective…We wanted to tell the clearest story that we could. And so that's where some of those decisions come from.
TV: How do you discuss changes from the book? Is that a conversation between you and Shonda Rhimes? Or that's just something you take into account in the writers’ room?
CVD: It's something that we talk about in the writers’ room. [Author] Julia Quinn has been so supportive of this show from the beginning and along for the ride. After she read the first scripts of season one, she came to me and said she never would have thought to approach the adaptation like this in a million years, but she was convinced that it was the only way to do it. And just hearing that vote of confidence from her really helped us. At the end of the day, we never want to do or be a show where the audience knows where we're going. We're never interested in doing the expected on Bridgerton. In fact, I think this show does the opposite in terms of subverting certain tropes and expectations.
I think that we are very true to the spirit of the books. We are very true to the main love stories, these happily ever afters. But it's a different medium, and what you can do in a book, you can’t always do onscreen. I always challenge myself, and I challenge our writers, to not be afraid of putting these characters in the most unimaginable, toughest situations possible, and seeing how they get out of them. I think that's what makes for compelling, riveting television, and it certainly makes for a ride of a show. And we want to be taking audiences on a ride when they watch this show.
TV: Now, you’re stepping back as showrunner [for season three], but you will still be executive producer. How are you feeling about that? And what would you like to see for Kate and Anthony, since we know they’re coming back?
CVD: Bridgerton is something I'm always going to be immensely proud of. With the success of creating this juggernaut of a show, a lot of doors have opened up for me and I couldn't be more grateful or humbled by that. So from a personal standpoint, I couldn't be more excited about what's next for me. I'm into a few projects right now — another adaptation, of this book entitled They Both Die at the End, is the first one I announced. I'm writing with the book's author, [it’s] this amazingly powerful and romantic and heart-wrenching love story about two queer characters that I'm incredibly excited to get into.
I'm really excited to see where the show goes from here. I am going to be stepping back after this season. I did a lot of work these first two seasons as far as setting up these characters for their futures. I think we were able to do that in a way that it's going to allow for continued success of the show. It's really exciting to see what's happening with a character like Queen Charlotte, who I created solely for the series. I introduced her way back in the Bridgerton pilot, and now Shonda Rhimes is making a show about her. The franchise has been able to expand, and I'm really proud of that and I'm excited to see where else it can go.
I'm also curious to see where just the main flagship Bridgerton goes from here. Every ounce of me went into this show for these first two seasons. There's not a script that did not go through my computer or my filter, or that I had to rewrite three, four, sometimes six times. And I say all that because that's the way it had to be in order to realize a singular, cohesive, creative vision. So I think future seasons are definitely going to be interesting for me, and I'm certainly curious to see where it goes now.
TV: You’ve spoken about this, too, that one day we might see more queer romance as part of Bridgerton as well?
CVD: I hope so. I definitely have been wanting to do that. We met some queer characters in season one. The world that Benedict is in is a world of freedom. And as a second son, he doesn't have the responsibility of this family on his shoulders. He's able to make some decisions and to go to some places and meet other characters that you typically wouldn't. And the beauty of this show is — I always wanted this show to be more than just the Bridgertons. I wanted it to be about an entire universe and an entire society, and I think queer characters, queer people are very much a part of that.
TV: Will you be in the writers’ room or continue to write?
CVD: I won’t be in the writers’ room, I won’t be show-running the show, no.
TV: Anything we should know about Jess Brownell [Shondaland and Bridgerton writer and producer] coming into her role as the new showrunner?
CVD: I'm excited to see Jess continue the magic for seasons three and beyond. I'm really rooting for her and I can’t wait to see what she does.
Read our April cover story with Bridgerton’s Charithra Chandran, on colorism, culture, and choosing yourself.
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Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: On “Bridgerton" Season 2, Brownness, and the Intimacy of Cultural Tradition