Life gets lonely for Kate Winslet at the top as the chancellor of a declining authoritarian regime in the trailer of HBO’s six-episode original limited series The Regime, dropped by the makers on Wednesday.
Set in a central European location surrounded by snow-capped hills, the trailer shows Winslet’s chancellor living on the edge as her regime is under political threat. She recruits Matthias Schoenaerts’s character to help her save the crumbling autocracy. The loyal soldier takes his job seriously as he rages out at politicians opposing Winslet and even blocks her husband from meeting her without her permission. Hugh Grant plays an opposition leader, adding to the star-power to the show.
In the trailer, Winslet’s supporters resort to various means, including intimidation of sceptics, to keep the chancellor “pleased”. In spite of her style of ruling with an iron fist, Winslet is also shown as slightly eccentric as she gets massages in the middle of meetings and dances in a winter-themed setting dressed as Mrs Clause.
The Regime will be the first series to feature Winslet and Grant together. The two British actors will be seen together in the HBO show for the first time in 28 years after the 1995 period drama Sense and Sensibility.
Apart from Winslet and Grant, The Regime also stars Guillaume Gallienne, Andrea Riseborough and Martha Plimpton. Created by Succession writer Will Tracy and directed by Stephen Frears and Jessica Hobbs, the show will premiere on HBO on March 3, 2024.
