Royals rule this week…so Westport’s Shonda Rhimes has created a new Netflix series you’re gonna want to binge. Spinning off “Bridgerton,” there’s “Queen Charlotte.” 

Part of a political pact, 17-year-old Charlotte (India Amarteifio) is dispatched from Germany to England to marry King George III (Corey Mylchreest). Since Charlotte has no idea if he’s “a troll or a beast,” she’s understandably reluctant.

Conveniently, they ‘meet cute’ as she’s trying to climb a wall to escape, so the lavish nuptials go as planned. But instead of consummating their union on their wedding night, George departs for his observatory to watch the night sky.

Persistently followed by her aide Brimsley (Sam Clemmett) – who’s dawdling with the King’s aide Reynolds (Freddie Dennis) – bewildered young Queen Charlotte’s only confidante is conniving Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas).

“I am born for the happiness or misery of a great nation, and consequently must often act contrary to my passions,” George fumes. (That evokes a contemporary connection to King Charles’ contrived marriage to naïve Diana to produce an heir and a spare, while he canoodled with his long-time mistress Camilla.)

Interspersed are glimpses of the mature, Regency-era Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel), familiar from “Bridgerton,” coping with the King’s debilitating illness as she poignantly prods her 13 progeny to preserve the dynasty.

Narrated by gossiping Lady Whistledown (Julie Andrews), the romantic plot is filled with clever gamesmanship, as many of the characters are deliciously duplicitous (even my action-oriented husband was intrigued).

Shonda Rhimes has perceptively dedicated this historical prequel “In Memory of Jacqueline Avant.” Mrs. Avant, mother of Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos’ wife Nicole, was shot and killed in a home invasion in 2021.

Renown as an activist/philanthropist in Los Angeles, Jacqueline was married to music executive Clarence Avant, called “the Godfather of Black music”…and she was fascinated by historical Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1774-1818). 

According to historian Mario de Valdes y Cocom on PBS Frontline, Queen Charlotte was directly descended from Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a Black branch of the Portuguese royal house. Even in varying accounts, her African roots are apparently verifiable, which brings us back to the King Charles III coronation.

If Queen Charlotte had Black ancestry, that would affect the entire lineage of her granddaughter, Queen Victoria, whose offspring occupied many European thrones. 

Another contemporary connection is the fanciful ‘Great Experiment’ in which titles and land were bestowed on people of color to equalize interracial marriages – evoking thoughts of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Queen Charlotte” is a tantalizing 10 – with all six episodes now streaming on Netflix.

Just be thankful you didn’t squander your money at the box-office for “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” one of the most worthless entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Paul Rudd’s third Ant-Man escapade is basically a family vacation gone wrong. His ex-con alter-ego Scott Lang, who was once fired from Baskin Robbins, is living it up in San Francisco as a minor celebrity who now has a best-selling memoir “Look Out for the Little Guy!” about his Avengers adventure.

When Lang, a divorced dad, and his girl-friend Hope Van Dyne, known as the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), are enjoying family time with his feisty teenage daughter Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) – a young radical who was arrested for civil disobedience – and Hope’s parents, Janet and Hank (Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas) – they are suddenly sucked down into a mutating Quantum Realm – located outside our space/time continuum.

Delving into MCU history, retired physicist Hank Pym was a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, while Janet Van Dyne was the original Wasp. She was previously confined in that subatomic sphere for 30 years, so she reunites with old acquaintances, including smarmy Lord Krylar (Bill Murray) with whom she apparently had some kind of a romantic relationship. 

Janet also has a history with scowling, manipulative Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), whom she previously prevented from escaping from the Realm. But the real villain is Kang’s MODOK (Carey Stoll’s Darren Cross) – a.k.a.: Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing. It’s a huge malevolent Helmeted Head with Glowing Eyes of Doom and insect-like limbs.

The concept – devised by screenwriter Jeff Loveness and director Peyton Reed and loaded with far too many distracting, computer-generated characters – couldn’t be more confusing. It’s obvious that the filmmakers concentrated primarily on building the Quantum fantasy world using FX.

On the Granger Gauge, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is an atrocious 3, streaming on Prime Video, Apple TV and Vudu – and, yes, there are mid-and-post-credits scenes, teasing “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” (2025).