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MOSCOW, November 6. The premiere of the series “Ekaterina. Favorites” will take place on the Rossiya TV channel. Marina Alexandrova has returned to the role of the empress, reports the press service of VGTRK.
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“Catherine is an incredible historical figure who is certainly worthy of the attention of descendants; it is not for nothing that she went down in history as Catherine the Great. Being a German, becoming absolutely Russian, having spent more than thirty years on the throne, she really did much more for Russia than many rulers before and after her. Somehow, fate gave me the chance to play this wonderful woman, and I am incredibly happy,” noted Alexandrova
This time the action will take place in 1779. Catherine the Great decides the issue of succession to the throne. She is ready to transfer the crown after her death to her grandson Alexander, bypassing her son Paul. 
However, the crown prince is not ready to lose his right to the throne. But the center of the plot is the empress’s love of love and her new favorites. And the second person in the state, Prince Potemkin, leads the processes in the country and the palace. Vladimir Yaglych returned to the role.
«“It seems to me that in the season “Favorites,” the new director Dmitry Petrun managed to give it a new breath, a new sound. And, in my opinion, this season will be the most interesting to the viewer, since the characters have become wiser, older — they are no longer the young rake they were «There was also Potemkin when he first crossed paths with the empress. Here we are already entering an era when they all became great statesmen,» Yaglych said. 
In turn, the project director Petrunya noted that there is no need to treat Catherine the Great’s chosen ones superficially.
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“It would be a mistake to perceive favorites superficially, simply as some boys for love. This was not the case at all. These were people who brought quite a lot, both into Catherine’s personal life and into the life of the country. These were the people who made the history of Russia!” — said the director.
In the fourth season, Mikhail Gorevoy (privy councilor Sheshkovsky), Pavel Tabakov (Tsarevich Pavel) also returned to their roles.
New historical characters also appeared. Anna Kovalchuk played the empress's friend and associate Ekaterina Dashkova, and the roles of the empress's main opponents — Count Alexander Stroganov and the largest book publisher Nikolai Novikov — were played by Dmitry Astrakhan and Alexey Kolgan.
The first season of the story — «Ekaterina» — was released in 2014. In 2016, a sequel appeared — “Catherine. Takeoff”, in 2019 — “Catherine. Impostors”.