Starz Orders New Tudor Drama 'Becoming Elizabeth'

Premium cable network Starz has ordered the next in its series of historical dramas focused on the women of the Tudor family. New series Becoming Elizabeth will focus on the early life of one of England's most iconic rulers, Queen Elizabeth I.

The only downside is that this series isn't based on a Philippa Gregory novel. The rest of the network's stable of Tudor-focused drama all take inspiration from several of Gregory's bestselling works. Hit dramas The White Queen, The White Princess and The Spanish Princess  told the stories of several influential women in what would ultimately become the Tudor family: Elizabeth Woodville, Elizabeth of York, and Katherine of Aragon.

And while Gregory does have a book focused on Queen Elizabeth - The Virgin's Lover - it's about the queen at a much later stage of her life than it sounds like this series will tackle. (It's also almost entirely about her volatile relationship with Robert Dudley which, let's face it, is well-trod ground when it comes to onscreen adaptations of Elizabeth's life.) And though a young version of the princess appears in Gregory's The Taming of the Queen, that novel is actually told from the perspective of Henry VIII's last wife, Katherine Parr.