Hulu's 'The Great' To Premiere This May
Russian empress Catherine the Great is having a bit of a moment right now, what with the lavish HBO miniseries about her life starring Helen Mirren that aired back in the fall of 2019, and now the upcoming Hulu period comedy (ish?) series headed our way this spring, known simply as The Great.
Though it's also a period piece, this take on the Empress of Russia's life feels very different from the recent HBO version. For starters, it's funny. Yes, really. And, unlike its Mirren-starring counterpart, it's more about the beginning of Catherine's life in Russia, rather than the end of her reign.
Elle Fanning stars as the young Catherine, who travels from Germany to Russia in order to marry Tsar Peter III in 1762. Naive and sheltered, she's hoping for a handsome prince and a bright future. What she gets is Peter - played by X-Men star Nicholas Hoult - a virtual man-child who is more interested in playing with toy soldiers and flinging dogs off balconies in parachutes than in actual ruling an empire. So, like so many women before - and after her - Catherine realizes that if she wants to build a place for herself in the world, she's going to have to do it herself.
