Gillian Anderson joins cast for second season of ‘The Great’

Anderson will star alongside Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult in the acclaimed historical comedy

Gillian Anderson arrives at the 2014 Baftas (Getty Images)

Gillian Anderson is set to join the cast of Hulu’s The Great for its second season, according to Variety.

The show is loosely based on the life of the Russian monarch Catherine the Great, who is played by Elle Fanning. Anderson will appear in two episodes of the new season as Joanna, Catherine’s mother.

Joanna has been described as a glamorous socialite from Germany, who is known as the “maestro of marriage” because of her ability to arrange high-profile partnerships for her daughters. When she hears of her daughter’s coup she travels to Russia to see it for herself.

Along with Anderson and Fanning, the second season of The Great will also star Nicholas Hoult, Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge, Sacha Dhawan, Bayo Gbadamosi and Belinda Bromilow.

In a three-star review, The Independent’s Louis Chilton called the first season of The Great “timely TV”, adding: “Rumbling underneath its dissonant mix of history and modernity, there are some keen observations about men, women, and power.”