5 historical women who deserve a miniseries from Netflix or Hulu

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA – JANUARY 09: Helen Mirren attends the premiere of Sony Pictures Classics’ ‘The Leisure Seeker’ at Pacific Design Center on January 9, 2018 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

A Catherine the Great HBO series has been announced, starring Helen Mirren. But rival streaming services like Netflix needn’t worry. We’ve got ideas.

According to Variety, a four-part series about Catherine the Great, written by Nigel Williams (who wrote the Elizabeth I miniseries, also starring Helen Mirren) will focus on Catherine near the end of her 34-year reign and explore her relationship with military leader Grigory Potemkin, with whom she had an affair.

“I am very excited by the possibility of embodying a woman from history who grabbed and then wielded great power,” Mirren said in a statement, reported by Variety. “She rewrote the rules of governance by a woman, and succeeded to the extent of having the word Great attached to her name, Catherine the Great.”

Catherine was so great, in fact, that rumors circulated that she died trying to have an affair with a horse, which subsequently crushed her. It was obviously untrue, and many historians have said the rumor was created to discredit her as the powerful, liberated woman she was.

Her reign was long, the longest of all Russia’s female monarchs, and full of affairs and attempted coups. HBO and Sky are definitely grasping for some awards here.

The likes of Hulu, Amazon and Netflix must be quivering in their seats. But never fear! There are plenty of amazing historical figures just calling out for a miniseries, and we’ve handily listed them here.

Thank us later.