Minnie Driver Commands Your Attention in Serpent Queen Season 2 Trailer

Get ready for a decidedly more devilish take on an English monarch when The Serpent Queen returns to Starz on July 12. Minnie Driver joins the racy historical drama, which follows Samantha Morton as France’s Queen Mother Catherine de Medici, as Elizabeth I, bringing chaos in her wake.

A new trailer for Season 2 teases the so-called Virgin Queen’s arrival in France, where Catherine is trying to quell a growing religious movement led by Isobel Jesper Jones’ Edith. With Catholics and Protestants at odds once more, the Serpent Queen vows to do “anything” to survive.

Season 1 of Justin Haythe’s series, based in part on Leonie Frieda’s book titled Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France, offered an extravagant and irreverent look back at one of France’s longest-reigning rulers. Morton shined as she slithered and plotted to maintain power, while also acknowledging just how vulnerable her position was in a male-dominated world. Now that her son Charles IX is of age, will Catherine really step back?

The new season will play a little faster and looser with history. Though Elizabeth I and Catherine had a lot in common as female monarchs (who both acted as stabilizing forces over long reigns) and even exchanged letters, there’s no record of a secret meeting between the two in a bid to fend off a shared threat. Haythe admitted as much to People, while also teasing his approach to this imagined meeting. But who wouldn’t want to see Morton and Driver go head to head, in period dress no less? We’ll get our chance next month.

Danette Chavez is the Editor-in-Chief of Primetimer and its biggest fan of puns.