The Great Trivia | 30 facts about the Hulu series

«The Great» is a historical and satirical black comedy-drama streaming television series aired on Hulu.

Let’s find out more about the series!

1. The Great is a historical and satirical black comedy-drama streaming TV series.
2. It was described by its commissioner Hulu as “anti-historical”.
3. «The Great» was titled onscreen as The Great: An Occasionally True Story and later as The Great: An Almost Entirely Untrue Story.
4. It is loosely based on the rise to power of Catherine the Great, Empress of All Russia.
5. All ten episodes of the first season were released on Hulu on May 15, 2020.
6. The series stars Elle Fanning as Empress Catherine II and Nicholas Hoult as the Emperor Peter III.
7. In July 2020, Hulu renewed the series for a second season which premiered on November 19, 2021.
8. In January 2022, the series was renewed for a third season
9. Principal photography for the pilot episode had commenced by November 2018 in York, England with other filming locations expected to include Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Hever in Kent.
10. The main filming locations were Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire and the Royal Palace of Caserta in Italy
11. The loggia on the lake at Hever Castle doubled as the location for a Russo-Swedish peace conference.
12. The fields of the St Clere Estate near Sevenoaks in Kent were used to stage battle scenes in episodes five and seven.
13. Filming for season two began on November 4, 2020, and ended on July 17, 2021.
14. Hulu has described “The Great” as “anti-historical” and the series’ title sequences declare it to be an “occasionally true story”.
15. According to Los Angeles Times critic Robert Lloyd, “McNamara had jotted down some names, relationships and a few historical bullet points, torn up the paper, and started writing.
16. And so must the viewer abandon himself to what’s on the plate without a care to learning anything useful or even true about Russia or any of the real people represented here.”
17. The character of Orlo appears to be loosely based on the similarly named real-life figure Grigory Orlov, who led the coup that overthrew Peter.
18. Nicholas Hoult was cast when the series’ creator, Tony McNamara, saw Hoult rehearse for The Favourite (2018). That film is similar to The Great as it is also a fast-paced, dark comedic, time period work.
19. During an interview in Sept. 2020, Elle Fanning talked about how liberating it is to play Catherine, “The real Catherine the Great was very free sexually and people put her down for that.
20. Sex is a big part of this show, and I was excited to explore that side of the work.” She then added, “Personally, I love being naked. I walk around naked, like, all the time. It’s a part of life!”
21. Belinda Bromilow, who plays Aunt Elizabeth, is married to the show’s creator Tony McNamara.
22. Elle Fanning described how the team behind the show tried to make the sex scenes as realistic as possible. “We had an intimacy coordinator that was on set whenever we had those scenes, to make everyone feel good and make everything look real.” The star also explained that she and Nicholas Hoult tried to make each other laugh during their intimate scenes. She laughed: “I think we both like to challenge ourselves, Nick and I, and we’re trying to push each other’s buttons and he’s trying to make me laugh and trying to go there.”
23. Elle Fanning said that while filming sex scenes with Nicholas Hoult, when the camera was only showing their bodies, they kept laughing because it all seemed so silly. They’d only be serious during close ups on their faces as they tried to look excited, and then they’d start cracking up as soon as the director yelled “Cut.”
24. Reunites Nicholas Hoult and Elle Fanning who previously starred together in Young Ones (2014).
25. This series reunites actor Nicholas Hoult and writer/creator Tony McNamara from The Favourite (2018).
26. In the final episode of Season 1, Count Orlo says of Catherine’s plan “But it is better we secure the palace, arrest him, get him to sign an abdication, send him to house arrest, and burn the house down a month later”, which is exactly what happened in the factual version of events.
27. Catherine and Peter were married for 17 years and she had 3 children during their marriage. Peter was crowned Emperor, making Catherine Empress consort, 6 months before the coup which resulted in his death and her coronation as the Empress of Russia, aka Catherine The Great.
28. Peeing on wheat was an actual historical method to detect pregnancy used by the ancient Egyptian. Modern studies show that it actually works with 70% accuracy.
29. Peter III reined from January 5, 1762 – July 9, 1762. Catherine the Great reined from July 9, 1762 – November 17, 1796.
30. The series is based upon Tony McNamara’s play revolving around Catherine the Great, which premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company in 2008