Gillian Anderson To Play Elle Fanning’s Mother In Season 2 Of Hulu’s ‘The Great’

We’ll be meeting Catherine’s (Elle Fanning) mother in Season 2 of Hulu’s The Great. Gillian Anderson (The Crown) will appear in two episodes of the acclaimed comedy drama as Catherine’s mother, Joanna.

Joanna is a glamorous socialite from Germany, sometimes also known as the “maestro of marriage” for her abilities to arrange high profile partnerships for her daughters. She has heard rumors of her daughter’s coup and come to Russia to see it for herself. Though the apple of Catherine’s eye and a doting mother, it soon becomes clear Johanna has more sinister intentions to save her family’s reputation

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Created, written and executive-produced by Oscar and Emmy-nominated writer Tony McNamara, the satirical show tells the story of the rise of Catherine the Great from outsider to the longest-reigning female ruler in Russia’s history with only a few occasional facts.

In addition to Fanning as Catherine, Nicholas Hoult, Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge, Sacha Dhawan, Bayo Gbadamosi and Belinda Bromilow also star.

In its first season, the praised series was nominated for multiple Emmy, Golden Globe, including best actor/actress for Hoult and Fanning, SAG and WGA awards, winning the WGA episodic comedy award for McNamara.

McNamara executive produces with Marian Macgowan, Thruline’s Josh Kesselman and Ron West, Echo Lake’s Brittany Kahan Ward, Doug Mankoff and Andrew Spaulding, Elle Fanning, Nicholas Hoult, Mark Winemaker and Matt Shakman. The series is from Civic Center Media in association with MRC Television.

Anderson is coming off her second career Golden Globe award win for her supporting role as Margaret Thatcher in Netflix’s The Crown. Previously, she won Emmy, Golden Globe and two SAG Awards for her signature role as Dana Scully on The X-Files. She also received Emmy, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Bleak House, and won the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress thanks to her work in The House of Mirth. She has five career Emmy nominations and earned her seventh SAG Award nomination as well. Her other recent noteworthy credits include Sex Education, All About Eve, American Gods, The Fall and War & Peace. She’s next to star as Eleanor Roosevelt opposite Viola Davis and Michelle Pfeiffer in Showtime’s upcoming limited series The First Lady. Anderson is repped by Independent Talent Group in the UK and UTA in the US.

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