HBO’s Catherine the Great looks to continue TV’s shift toward female-focused period drama

The incomparable Helen Mirren will star in HBO’s new drama Catherine the Great, the latest in an exciting new trend of period stories focused on the lives of powerful and intriguing women.

One thing we absolutely need more of these days, is stories about powerful women – both historical and otherwise.

Thankfully, HBO is here to provide – with its upcoming four-part drama Catherine the Great, which looks to tell the story of one of the most powerful women in history, right at the time when we need these stories the most.

And if you need somebody to play a queen, there’s pretty much no better choice than Dame Helen Mirren. (This will be her fourth royal monarch after all – including Queens Charlotte, Elizabeth I and Elizabeth II.)

Mirren will star as the infamous Russian Empress, whose life was largely defined by her determination to rule on her own terms.

“Do you know what I hold in my hand?” Catherine asks at one point. “Absolute power.”

[Insert your favorite Beyonce “Who run the world? Girls!” GIF here.]

But in all seriousness, what’s so enticing – and ultimately satisfying – about every shot in the Catherine the Great teaser is that it screams from top to bottom that this is a woman’s story.

This isn’t a period drama about who’s going to get to marry which eligible suitor at the end of the day and settle into life as a wife in the countryside. It’s a story about a woman who created an empire out of the sheer force of her own will. (And who picked her own lovers along the way.)

The real Catherine ruled Russia as its empress for almost thirty years, coming to power after organizing a coup d’etat against her husband, Peter III, which saw him overthrown and herself installed in his place. Her reign oversaw a massive expansion of Russian territories, and helped build her country into one of the world’s great powers.

Catherine the Great continues the exciting (and, thankfully, growing) trend of telling period stories focused on the perspectives of the women who lived them. Starz’s series of Tudor-focused dramas – The White Queen, The White Princess and The Spanish Princess – are probably the most popular recent examples. But shows such as Harlots, Victoria and Gentleman Jack, as well as films like The Favourite and Mary, Queen of Scots are all pushing the genre towards more balanced storytelling. (After all, it’s primarily women who love period dramas, isn’t it? Wouldn’t we all want see more female stories told? I say yes, at any rate. Huzzah!)

Apparently, Mirren herself came up with the idea for the series, so here’s hoping that means she had some sort of hand in making it a story that’s worth her talents too.

Catherine the Great doesn’t have an air date yet, but we’re all basically expecting it to show up on Monday nights at some point this Fall, further cementing that slot as a spot on the premium network where viewers can expect to find its high-end prestige dramas like Gentleman Jack and Chernobyl.