Ahead of the season two premiere, the Australian screenwriter explains his fresh, bawdy and wilfully anachronistic take on Catherine the Great
Bright, bawdy and occasionally blood-splattered, the first season of Hulu/Stan’s The Great crashed on to screens last year with a defiant “huzzah!” as viewers met the young future Catherine the Great (Elle Fanning) fresh off the carriage from Germany. The sweetly idealistic noblewoman can’t wait to meet her new husband, Russian Emperor Peter III (Nicolas Hoult, having the time of his career), but soon finds her Prince Charming is a hedonistic man-child, and his court a colourful free-for-all of smashed champagne glasses, open marriages and regicidal intrigue.
“I like the stakes of the era, the life and death stakes of the court world,” creator Tony McNamara says. “I also like that they’re dealing with stuff we’re still freakin’ dealing with … We’re still dealing with privilege, and how to give people equality, and all that kind of stuff. I’m interested in the parallels – and I’m also interested in the freedom I get.”
