The Great Canceled at Hulu

Well, this will go down as one of the most shocking cancellations ever.

Hulu has canceled the Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult comedy The Great after three seasons.

The sad news was first reported by Deadline.

Created, written, and executive produced by Tony McNamara, The Great followed Catherine The Great's story as "an idealistic, romantic young girl, who arrives in Russia for an arranged marriage to the mercurial Emperor Peter," according to the official description.

"Hoping for love and sunshine, she finds instead a dangerous, depraved, backward world that she resolves to change."

"All she has to do is kill her husband, beat the church, baffle the military and get the court onside."

News of the cancellation comes over three months on from the premiere of The Great Season 3, which unspooled all episodes on May 12.

The series enjoyed success with critics and on the awards front, and there had been no indication the series was in line to be canceled.

Hulu has yet to reveal any details on the cancellation, but there's a chance it was related to the cost-cutting efforts underway at Disney as a whole.

There's also the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes to consider, but without any details, all we can do is speculate.

The cast was rounded out by Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge, Sacha Dhawan, Sebastian de Souza, Bayo Gbadamosi, and Belinda Bromilow.

"On The Great Season 3, Catherine and Peter attempt to make their marriage work after some seemingly insurmountable problems," the logline teases.

"Peter witnessed his own attempted murder at Catherine's hands and she also imprisoned all of his friends."

"On top of this, Peter is at a loose end playing First Husband to Catherine's reign, so he busies himself with fathering, hunting and salty culinary ventures."

"But they're not enough to keep him contented as visions of his late father (played by Jason Isaacs), get in his head about his failures as Peter the Great's son."

"Catherine the Great starts making a name for herself beyond her borders and, inspired by a visit from the US ambassador, sets up a conference where peasants, nobles, and merchants can all give their input on developing a new Russia," Hulu adds.

"She learns that even the best political leaders sometimes need to make compromises in order to progress."