‘The Great’ Starring Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult Canceled After 3 Seasons

All great things come to an end. Hulu’s The Great, starring Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult, will not return for a Season 4, multiple reports stated on Wednesday. 

The series, which released its third season in May, is a genre-bending depiction of Catherine The Great and Peter III of Russia. 

The show’s official description asserts that Catherine is “an idealistic, romantic young girl, who arrives in Russia for an arranged marriage to the mercurial Emperor Peter. Hoping for love and sunshine, she finds instead a dangerous, depraved, backward world that she resolves to change. All she has to do is kill her husband, beat the church, baffle the military and get the court onside.”  

Season 3 followed the power couple as they attempted to make their marriage work following many coup attempts and fights for power over their kingdom. Not only had Peter witnessed Catherine’s attempt to murder him, she also imprisoned all his supporters while fighting for her reign. But despite all the distractions at hand — fathering, hunting and “salty culinary ventures” — it’s wasn’t enough to keep Peter from being plagued by visions of his late father (Jason Isaacs), who got in his head about failing to live up to his grandfather, Peter the Great. 

In addition to Fanning and Hoult, the series also featured Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge, Sacha Dhawan, Sebastian de Souza, Bayo Gbadamosi and Belinda Bromilow. It was created, written and executive produced by Tony McNamara.

Throughout its run, the show was met with positive reviews and achieved seven Emmy nominations since its premiere in 2020. It won the Emmy for Outstanding Period Costumes in 2022. Fanning won a SAG, Critic’s Choice and Independent Spirit Award for her performance. 

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