'The Serpent Queen' Season 2 Puts Catherine de Medici & Elizabeth I Side by Side

The bitch, as they say, is back. Well, almost. Starz has released a first look at the upcoming second season of its biting period drama The Serpent Queen, and if the lush costumes and sprawling cast are any indication, we're all in for an excellent time this summer. 

The series aims to tell the story of the (in)famous French queen Catherine de Medici, a complicated and largely misunderstood woman who was the mother of three kings and is predominantly remembered by history as a dark and sinister figure. Her interest in the occult, her friendships with questionable figures like the seer Nostradamus, and her supposed love of poisoning her enemies led her to be branded as everything from a murderer to a literal witch, and while it's highly unlikely she committed even a fraction of the acts she stands accused of, well. History's never been all that kind of the memory of powerful women, has it?

The Serpent Queen stars Samantha Morton (The Burning Girls) as Catherine, and the series' first season chronicled her early life, from her arrival in France at the age of fourteen to her wedding to the second son of the French king and the realization that her new husband already had a much-older mistress. The Season 1 finale saw the events of the story Catherine had been telling about her origins (in flashback form) catch up to the events of the life she is currently living, just as her second son is about to be crowned King Charles IX.  We don't know much yet about what Season 2 of The Serpent Queen will look like, but there are plenty of dark historical events and difficult choices in Catherine's future for the show to explore.

Season 2 will introduce Minnie Driver (Starstruck) as Queen Elizabeth I, adding a second controversial female monarch struggling to craft and control her own image to its roster of complex historical women. Even though one of the new Season 2 images features Morton and Driver together, the historical Catherine and Elizabeth never actually met. (And while The Serpent Queen has certainly played fast and loose with various aspects of historical fact, it remains to be seen if the show is willing to push the envelope quite that far.)

The two exchanged letters, however, so perhaps the device by which we see them communicate will somehow put both women in the same room, even if it's only for dramatic effect. Their relationship was friendly and adversarial by turns, as the pair often had opposing religious, political, and social goals in terms of their respective reigns. But they found an uneasy compromise on many issues, and two of Catherine's sons were even offered up as marriage prospects for the so-called "Virgin Queen".  (Your mileage may vary on whether you believe these were alliances proposed in good faith.)

Alongside Driver, nearly a dozen new characters are joining the cast in Season 2, including several of Catherine's children. Bill Milner (The Flatshare) takes over the role of King Charles IX, now the oldest surviving son of Catherine de Medici and the new ruler of France, whose will primarily be remembered for a great deal of civil warfare spurred on by decades of tension between Protestants and Catholics. Phillippine Velge (Station Eleven) is Catherine's eldest daughter Margot and Stanley Morgan (Sexy Beast) is Hercules, Duke of Anjou, her youngest surviving son. 

Other notable new faces include Angus Imrie (Fleabag) as Henry de Bourbon-Navarre; Emma McDonald (Moonhaven) as an aged-up Rahima; Rosalie Craig (The Tower) as Jeanne d'Albret; Ashley Thomas (Great Expectations) as Alessandro de Medici; Alexandre Willaume (1899) as Montmorency, the Constable General of France; and Isobel Jesper Jones (The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself) as a Protestant preacher named Edith.

Returning cast members include Danny Kirrane (Boat Story), Ray Panthaki (Boiling Point), Raza Jaffrey (Homeland), Enzo Cilenti (The Crown), Amrita Acharia (The Good Karma Hospital), Ruby Bentall (Firebrand), Beth Goddard (Manhunt), Ludivine Sagnier (Napoleon), and Rupert Everett (Funny Woman).

The series is based on Leonie Frieda's book Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France. Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road) wrote the scripts and is also an executive producer alongside Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games) and Erwin Stoff (The Matrix). Lionsgate Television and 3 Arts Entertainment produce the series for STARZ.

The Serpent Queen Season 2 does not currently have a premiere scheduled, but according to Starz it will arrive at a to still be determined date this summer.