Helen Mirren In Another Royal Drama We Can’t Wait to Watch

Helen Mirren has the queen thing down. We’ve seen her as Elizabeth II, as the first Elizabeth, and as Queen Charlotte, wife of crazy George III. How fitting it is then that she is now playing royalty who comes with a suffix that perfectly expresses our view of Mirren herself: Catherine the Great.

I am very excited by the possibility of embodying a woman from history who grabbed and then wielded great power.

The four-part miniseries, a co-production of HBO and Sky, will take in the latter years of the monarch’s rule in 18th-century Russia, amid scandal (let’s hope a horse isn’t involved), intrigue, and immense conflict. Catherine is described in the show notes as “strong-minded, independent, brilliantly intelligent and sexually liberated—the definition of the modern woman.” Yes! Thank you, HBO, for recognizing that an older woman can be all these things (even two centuries ago). Catherine was over 45 for most of her reign and died at 67.