His sudden admiration and devotion to his ambitious wife was a turning point for the show. His inability to hide his thoughts (or be ashamed of them) provides many of the show’s funnier moments. Yet, just as he grows on Catherine, Peter is quickly becoming a fan favorite. He sleeps with anyone, including his best friend’s wife, burns down Catherine’s school for women, and kills people on a whim–all the while chatting pompously about empty trivialities. In the beginning, it was almost impossible to see Peter III, the Emperor of Russia, as anything but a spoiled, incompetent, overgrown child. Let’s hope all her travails don’t make her unrecognizably cynical. Between compromising her dreams of progress, raising her son Paul and trying to mend her marriage to Peter, Catherine will have her hands full in Season 3. Not only that but her attempts to bond with the peasant population and improve their lives are met with equal suspicion unused to any aristocrat treating them kindly, the peasants believe Catherine is a witch. But judging from the trailer, Catherine is still (barely) suppressing a lot of rage toward Peter. Luckily, she only killed Peter’s lookalike and the two tearfully reunited. A vengeful Catherine stabbed her husband before crumbling in remorse. Even more shocking is that Peter fell in love with his wife and set out to win her heart, eventually succeeding, But leopards can’t always change their spots: Peter not only slept with Catherine’s mother but accidentally killed her by pushing her out of the window. After removing her irresponsible, insensitive playboy husband Peter from the throne, Catherine set out to win the hearts of her court and the populace–only to be continually stymied by Russia’s hidebound customs and suspicion of outsiders and women. That second trait took quite a beating in Season 2 of The Great. Soon after, Peter III was dead of mysterious causesĮmpress Catherine, as played by Fanning, has retained two things during all the challenges of ruling Russia: her rosy cheeks and her relentless, extremely naive optimism. In reality, Peter III and Catherine the Great had a loveless, miserable marriage for 16 years before he took the throne-and just six more months afterward before Catherine banished her husband and became Empress in her own name. Even more surprisingly (and ahistorically) Catherine returns his feelings. Though the crude, spoiled and entitled Peter initially seemed to be the series antagonist, things changed quickly in Season 2 when he fell in love with his wife. Chief among these dramatic changes is the blossoming romance between Empress Catherine ( Elle Fanning) and her husband, Peter III ( Nicholas Hoult). As the hit series approaches Season 3, showrunner Tony McNamara appears to be gleefully jettisoning even more facts for some far more entertaining fiction. After all, each episode begins with the disclaimer "occasionally a true story" and most characters are either amalgamations of different real-life courtiers or just entirely made up. ![]() The Great, Hulu's extravagant, bawdy, triumphantly irreverent series about the reign of Catherine the Great, never promised us historical accuracy.
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