“It’s really deep and profound.”
The Great has finally returned to UK screens for its third outing and star Gwilym Lee, who plays Peter’s closest confidant Grigor, has said it “totally felt like a different season” when he first read the scripts.
“Season 2 ends with Katherine trying to kill her husband but quite awkwardly, she kills his doppelgänger, which Peter witnesses, so that’s quite a tricky thing to come back from,” he explained to RadioTimes.com.
“And it’s fun seeing them explore their relationship, how to bring that back because what they realise is ultimately, through all the highs and lows they’ve been through, they love each other.
“And to begin with, Grigor finds that unbearable and impossible to believe. But his journey through this season is accepting that actually, his best friend does love Catherine and actually, he needs to get behind that, and he does support him, so it’s a very emotional season. It’s a very human, heartfelt, poignant season, whereas previous seasons have been about politics and religion and society at that time.”
He added: “This feels so much about the individuals, about their relationships with each other and the unravelling of that when things go wrong, when the unexpected happens.”
But Lee went on to say that while season 3 is “really deep and profound, that isn’t to say it’s not hilarious and very funny”.
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Here’s the official logline for The Great season 3:
“Catherine (Elle Fanning) and Peter (Nicholas Hoult) attempt to make their marriage work after some seemingly insurmountable problems. Peter witnessed his own attempted murder at Catherine’s hands and she also imprisoned all of his friends.
“On top of this, Peter is at a loose end playing First Husband to Catherine’s reign, so he busies himself with fathering, hunting and salty culinary ventures. But they’re not enough to keep him contented as visions of his late father (Jason Isaacs) get in his head about his failures as Peter the Great’s son.
“Catherine the Great starts making a name for herself beyond her borders and inspired by a visit from the US ambassador, sets up a conference where peasants, nobles and merchants can all give their input on developing a new Russia. She learns that even the best political leaders sometimes need to make compromises in order to progress.”
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As for the future of the show, Lee said the cast are “waiting to hear”, but he does feel quietly confident about season 4’s chances.
“It’s still only fairly recently that it went out in the States,” he said. “Even when we’ve been recommissioned in the past, we’ve never been picked up this quickly, so there’s hope and intention. We’d all love to do more.
“The reality is Catherine reigned for 30-odd years in Russia and took Russia into the modern era, so there’s so much more story to tell.”
The Great season 3 premieres on Lionsgate+ today (Friday 14th July), with episodes being released every Friday – sign up to Lionsgate+ through Amazon Prime Video here.
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