Diksha Sundriyal
Created by Tony McNamara, Hulu’s period comedy-drama series, ‘The Great’ stars Elle Fanning as Catherine the Great. It focuses on the rise of the Russian empress, who changed the face of the country through her progressive policies. While the show is set in a historical context, it doesn’t strictly adhere to facts and figures. It revels in irreverence toward history and twists everything to serve the plot, which is what makes it so entertaining to watch.
The third of the show brings many twists and turns in Catherine’s life, especially when it comes to the people she loves. She goes through some significant losses but makes it clear that nothing can stop her from serving Russia and trying to make it a great country. If you loved watching the show and wondering what it has in store for the protagonist in the future, then here’s all you need to know about it.
Will The Great Season 4 Happen?
‘The Great’ Season 3 was released on Hulu on May 12, 2023, in its entirety. The season consists of ten episodes, each an hour long. Much like its previous seasons, ‘The Great’ received critical acclaim for its third season and was also loved by the audience. The previous renewal patterns suggest that Hulu waits at least a couple of months before renewing or canceling a show. As of now, there has been no announcement about the future of ‘The Great,’ but we expect to receive the final word on it by June or July.
Considering the success of ‘The Great’ for the streaming service, it wouldn’t be a surprise if it is greenlit for another season. While the show has had three seasons, it has barely scratched the surface of Catherine’s reign, and the first season focused on the coup. The second season focused on Catherine finding her footing while dealing with her complicated romance with Peter. In the third season, she starts to understand the politics of the court, but severe personal losses hold her back. Still, at the end of the season, she breaks out of that spell and proves herself to be a competent leader.
The final scene of ‘The Great’ Season 3 promises a stronger Catherine, no longer the wide-eyed young girl entertaining fantasy about what she and Russia should be. She’s hardened by experience and has a much better idea of how to control things. Should the fourth season happen, we could finally get to see the conniving ruthlessness of Catherine, which made her a feared but also loved character. She always wanted to push Russia toward the artistic and cultural enlightenment that the rest of Europe had been going through. The following season could shed some light on that journey.
One of Catherine’s biggest life lessons comes from the Pugachev rebellion. She crushes it by the end of Season 3, but that doesn’t mean she’ll never have another such situation at her hands. The real-life Catherine the Great tackled many uprisings and rebellions during her reign. This also affected her policies, some of which backfired, leading her to take a step back. Catherine in ‘The Great’ has had her fair share of policies that didn’t sit well with the public and had to be retracted almost as soon as they came into force. The next season could focus on more such struggles.
While Catherine is super-focused on making Russia great, the show also explores her love life. She is, after all, a hopeless romantic at heart. In the first season, she fell in love with Leo Voronski, while in the next two seasons, she had Peter III as her great love. Now that both of them are gone, who will become her next love interest? The real-life Catherine courted many lovers during her more than three-decades-long reign. The fourth season could introduce a new character or perhaps build upon Catherine’s relationship with an already-established character, most probably someone like General Petrov.
All of this proves that there is no shortage of material, and the writers could easily spin another season, charting Catherine’s rule of Russia. Actors like Sacha Dhawan and Nicholas Hoult would probably not appear in the next season, considering the fate of their characters in Season 3, but we expect the rest of the main cast to reprise their roles. With all this in mind, we expect the next season of ‘The Great’ to release sometime in early 2025.
Read More: Is Peter Dead? Did Nicholas Hoult Leave The Great?
