Starz Orders ‘The White Queen’ Follow-Up ‘The Spanish Princess’

Starz has added a third series from Philippa Gregory.

After The White Queen and The White Princess, the third installment will be called The Spanish Princess and, like the others, is based on Gregory’s global best-sellers The Constant Princess and The King’s Curse.

The Spanish Princess returns viewers to the world of royal court intrigue as seen uniquely through the perspective of the women, but also sheds light on a previously untold corner of history — the lives of people of color, living and working in 16th century London.

Emma Frost (The White Queen, The White Princess, The Man in the High Castle) and Matthew Graham (Life on Mars, Electric Dreams, Doctor Who) will pen the series, executive produce and serve as showrunners. Playground’s Colin Callender and Scott Huff will return as exec producers, while Charlie Pattinson and Charlie Hampton will oversee for All3Media’s New Pictures banner. Karen Bailey will oversee for Starz, which will retain domestic multiplatform pay TV and SVOD rights to the series. Lionsgate, which will co-produce, will retain international and domestic distribution and home entertainment rights.

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“Starz is committed to its ongoing programming strategy to provide premium content highlighting the untold stories of strong women in history,” Carmi Zlotnik, president of programming at Starz, said Thursday in a statement. “We have a passionate fanbase who embraces female-led stories like The White Queen and The White Princess and are excited to continue with Catherine of Aragon’s story in The Spanish Princess.”

The series will revolve around Catherine of Aragon, the beautiful teenage princess of Spain who had been promised the English throne since she was a child. She arrives in a gray, rain-lashed England with her glorious and diverse court including her lady-in-waiting Lina, an African Moor. She is Princess of Wales now, but when her husband Prince Arthur dies suddenly, the throne seems lost to Catherine — until she claims her marriage was never consummated and that as a virgin she may set her sights on the new heir, the charismatic and headstrong Prince Harry, who will one day rule as King Henry VIII.

The White Queen ranked as a top 10 cable show, averaging 4.8 million multiplatform viewers per episode and ranks as the first Starz original series to attract more women to the cable network than men as the former comprised 55 percent of the viewership.