Every time a new adaptation of a prominent historical figure arrives, you can guess that there will be some new take, or new vision. There have been a ton of movies and shows that take on a new historical figure recently, where filmmakers have focused a lot on women. But what is it about Catherine the Great that earned her not only one new adaptation but two, each focusing on different parts in the Russian Empress's life?
In 2019, Helen Mirren starred in HBO's limited seriesCatherine the Great, and now barely a year later Elle Fanning is jumping into the role as a younger version of the monarch in a series on Hulu called The Great. These two different series are not the first time Catherine has walked the screens, there have almost been as many adaptations for her as Marie Antoinette, but why is she so special as to achieve two different shows in such a short amount of time?
The truth is that Catherine the Great's true story is timeless, and in a world where feminism and the tales of strong women are reigning, it's no surprise that powerful women's roles in television and film are reflecting that, even if Catherine was way before this time. Right now the market for strong female characters is abundant, from Marvel heroines to the first female mathematicians, and all the way back to powerful women during Catherine's reign.
To better understand why Catherine the Great would be such a great role model for women today, and why filmmakers have chosen to recreate her so frequently lately, you have to understand that Catherine was a true feminist. When she married the future Emperor Peter III of Russia, she expected to find romance, but like most of the arranged marriages of the time, romance was hard to come by. She quickly found that her husband was rebellious and sympathized with Germany, and that he much rathered a life of drinking himself to a stupor and having constant affairs with other women. So Catherine did what any intelligent and clever woman would do, she took the power right from under his feet.
Opposite her incapable husband, Catherine won the sympathy of many of her fellow Russians, and her strong character and ambition are what helped her to consider overthrowing her husband. When Peter pulled out of the Seven Years War and sided with Germany, Catherin had full control of the Russian armies, who followed her as she self-proclaimed herself Empress and was coronated. Shortly after, Peter abdicated the throne and was killed eight days later. Catherin ruled for 34 years.
If that's not a story on women's perseverance we don't know what is. So naturally the story of Catherine the Great is very fascinating, full of intrigue, and that's probably why we see two different shows about the Empress so close together. But the two shows demonstrate two completely different sides and takes on her from two different points in her life. Miren's version is more serious, political, sophisticated, and wiser, while Fanning's is witty, comical, and youthfully innocent. It is also worthy to note that both Miren and Fanning are executive producers of their shows respectively.
Catherine the Great's writer, Nigel Williams, who also wrote another of Mirren's biographical films, Elizabeth I, brought us a more factual depiction of the Empress's later life, after her coup against her husband, and focused on her romance with Grigory Potemkin, despite the destabilization of the country during the first years of her reign.
"Your job as an actor is to find the reality, the vulnerability, the attitudes, and the complexities of the human being inside of all of that," Mirren told Variety. "But then you do come across people who are almost sort of superhuman, and Catherine was like that. She was extraordinary. She held onto power and the throne during an incredibly difficult, dangerous time in Russia. For her to handle the whole thing as a woman and a foreigner was an extraordinary feat. It was an incredible honor to walk in her shoes for a few hours."
But after Catherine the Great, now comes a new even more intriguing depiction of Catherine's life, when she first comes to marry Peter, in The Great. This time the biographical adaptation is written less seriously and wittier, coming from Tony McNamara, co-writer of the interestingly funny take on Queen Anne, The Favourite. Where Queen Anne's story was sort of twisted humorously, so is Catherine's in The Great. The series also sees Fanning's Catherine as a romantic when she comes to Peter, but in the end she finds a way to undermine her husband (played by Nicholas Hoult who also starred in The Favourite) and the pair battle it out in funny banter.
"I was interested in details that would be funny and relatable," McNamara told Town and Country about how a funnier twist on the historical figures life makes it timelier. "You get up in the morning and you’re trying to overthrow an emperor but you’re still a kid."
Even though it is interesting to see two different shows depict Catherine at different ages and in different ways, the story of the famous Empress still demonstrates female power and her story can teach females a lot about themselves. Both shows are a great addition not only to great female monarch stories but also great female empowerment stories in general. We do love a great female-driven period piece.
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