'Catherine The Great' Trailer Shows Helen Mirren With Absolute Power

HBO's upcoming limited series Catherine The Great promises a Helen Mirren tour-de-force as the titular monarch.

It is the Year for Russian History on HBO. Following this spring's miniseries Chernobyl, the hit dramatization of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe in the USSR, HBO is bringing forth Catherine The Great. Starring Helen Mirren as the 18th-century Russian monarch, the four-part series is expected to arrive this fall.

The real Catherine the Great was born Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg in 1729. The daughter of Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, she was part of the ruling German family of Anhalt in Prussia. She was married off to the prospective tsar Peter of Holstein-Gottorp, who eventually became Peter III, as part of a deal to strengthen Russia and Prussia against Austrian power. She went on to become Russia's longest-ruling female leader, crowned Empress of Russia in 1762, and ruling until her death in 1796.

But Catherine did not become monarch just out of a series of unfortunate accidents. She was not like Victoria or Elizabeth, both of whom, through no fault of their own, found themselves moved into the line of succession due to death in childbirth and abdication. Princess Sophie straight up organized a coup d'état against her husband, Peter III. She had always detested him anyway, and it made her the sole leader of the country. Her leadership was not a lazy one. Catherine the Great was not content to sit in her palaces playing favorites, though she famously did plenty of that as well. Instead, she single-handledly went out and reformed the country into the one we know it as today.