The satirical dramedy The Great starring Elle Fanning has been renewed by Hulu for a second season.
The news comes just two months short of the first season’s debut. Created by Tony McNamara, the series is about Catherine the Great’s (Fanning) rise from outsider to the longest-reining female ruler in Russia.
Nicholas Hoult, Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge, Sacha Dhawan, Sebastian de Souza, Bayo Gbadamosi, and Belinda Bromilow rounded out the cast.
McNamara’s other works include The Favourite, another historical dramedy about England’s Queen Elizabeth starring Olivia Coleman, for which he received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay.
When speaking about the idea for The Great McNamara told Deadline, “I didn’t know much about her except that maybe she banged a horse,” he said of the famous rumor circulated about Catherine. “And then I heard something about her keeping the Age of Enlightenment alive. So, I read up on her and she seemed to be an amazing character—really complicated and really modern in a lot of ways. That made me want to write about her, and I thought, well, how do I write about her in a way that would make me want to watch it?”
