Samantha Morton is a great actress and gave us an amazing Queen Mary of Scots in the film Elizabeth – The Golden Age, starring Cate Blanchett. Now she goes back to the medieval period to give life to the Scottish queen’s mother-in-law, the feared and controversial Queen Catherine de Medici, in the Starz series The Serpent Queen.

There will only be eight episodes that will transport the best seller written by Leonie Frieda, Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France, to the screen.

The cast includes Game of Thrones‘ Charles Dance as Pope Clement VII, Danny Kirrane as King Louis of Bourbon, with Ludivine Sagnier as Catherine’s arch-rival Diana of Poitiers. Colm Meaney will play the Queen’s allied father-in-law, King Francis I.

Shooting began at the end of April.

Catherine was an important regent in France with three children ascending to the throne and with tragic events marking her reign, such as the massacre of Saint Bartholomew and the predictions of Nostradamus. Her relationship with her daughter, Margot, was particularly complicated. The series will show her early years at the French court, rejected by her husband who preferred the company of his mistress Diana.

No release date has been announced yet.