HBO has released the official trailer for the upcoming limited series Catherine the Great. The series stars Helen Mirren as the titular 18th-century Russian monarch and Jason Clarke as Grigory Potemkin, a military man and one of Catherine's many lovers.

The official trailer puts a majority of its focus on Catherine (Mirren), naturally, and hints at how central her fight to maintain her position of power is as her male advisors attempt to sow distrust with those at court. Catherine is, as the trailer repeatedly tells us, an atypical ruler for her time. She flaunts her rotating roster of lovers at public events. She goes out onto the battlefield to see how things are progressing. She yells at any person who dares defy her. There will no doubt be plenty of opportunities for Mirren to chew a bit of scenery in this limited series but, in a lush period drama of this magnitude, it's expected. Of course, things get a little bit complicated when military man Potemkin (Clarke) enters the scene as Catherine's main squeeze who gets a little taste for power and potentially wants more. Men: you can't live with 'em and you can't live without 'em.

In addition to Mirren and Clarke, Catherine the Great's cast includes Rory Kinnear (Skyfall), Kevin McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl), Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones), and Sam Palladio (Nashville). The limited series was directed by Philip Martin (WallanderThe Crown), who also directed Mirren in the 1991 limited TV series Prime Suspect.

The four-part Catherine the Great limited series debuts on HBO on October 3, 2019. Check out the official trailer below.

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Image via HBO
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Image via HBO
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Image via HBO
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Image via HBO