The Empress

Premise

16-year-old Bavarian Duchess Elisabeth "Sisi" von Wittelsbach falls in love with Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, the intended fiancé of her older sister, Duchess Helene, and they marry. Arriving in Vienna, Sisi finds herself navigating the complexity of court politics and her husband's scheming family. Her mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie, who is also her aunt, antagonises her almost immediately. Maximilian, Franz Joseph's younger brother, tries to outshine his brother and prove that he is more worthy to rule.

Cast

Introduced in Season 1

Devrim Lingnau as Elisabeth "Sisi" von Wittelsbach, Duchess in Bavaria turned Empress of Austria

Philip Froissant as Franz Joseph I of Austria

Melika Foroutan as Sophie, Archduchess of Austria, Franz Joseph's mother and Elisabeth's aunt turned mother-in-law

Johannes Nussbaum as Archduke Maximilian, Franz Joseph's younger brother

Elisa Schlott as Duchess Helene "Néné" in Bavaria, Elisabeth's older sister (season 1)

Jördis Triebel as Ludovika, Duchess in Bavaria, Elisabeth's mother

Almila Bagriacik as Ava, a revolutionary posing as Countess Leontine von Apafi

Hanna Hilsdorf as Countess Amalia von Salm-Reifferscheidt, a lady-in-waiting who has dedicated her life to the Austrian empire (season 1)

Runa Greiner as Countess Charlotte von Stubenberg, a naïve lady-in-waiting who later becomes the matron of the empress's maid service

Svenja Jung as Countess Louise Gundemann (later Baroness von Sina), Franz Joseph's former lover

Andreas Döhler as Maximilian, Duke in Bavaria, Elisabeth's father

Wiebke Puls as Countess Sophie Esterházy, matron of the empress's maid service and Sophie's confidant (season 1)

Michael Fuith as Franz Karl, Archduke of Austria, Sophie's husband and Franz Joseph's supposed father, who becomes Elisabeth's father-in-law (season 1)

Episodes

Production

Development

In December 2020, Netflix announced it would start producing a six-part series with the working title The Empress, based on the life of the Austrian empress Elisabeth of Bavaria (nicknamed Sisi). It would be directed by Katrin Gebbe and Florian Cossen, with Bernd Lange and Janna Maria Nandzik writing. Devrim Lingnau and Philip Froissant were announced in the lead roles.

Filming

Filming for the first season began in August 2021 and was completed in January 2022. The series was filmed in German and subsequently dubbed into 14 languages, including English. Subtitles were provided in 32 languages.

The storyline takes place primarily in Vienna, though parts of the first episode are set in Bavaria, where the young Elisabeth was living when she met the emperor. Nonetheless, exterior filming was completed in Germany, primarily in Bavaria. For studio work, the production moved to Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam. Location shooting was completed in cities such as Bayreuth, Stein, Bamberg, Dinkelsbühl, Eckersdorf, and Aidhausen. Several historical locations were used, including Schloss Weißenstein in Pommersfelden, which stood in for Schönbrunn Palace. Exterior scenes of Sisi's childhood home were filmed at Eyrichshof Castle near Ebern, although the family's summer home was actually the nearby Possenhofen Castle.

After Netflix renewed the series, filming for the second season began in Prague, Czechia, by September 2023. Additional filming was done in Zagreb, Croatia.

Production on the third season began in Prague in September 2025.

Reception

The Empress debuted at number one following its release on 29 September 2022, with 47.2 million hours watched in four days (29 September to 2 October 2022), becoming Netflix's most-watched non English-language series for over a week. Within 11 days, it was running in approximately 18.7 million homes and was the second most-watched Netflix series worldwide (behind Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story), with 106.6 million hours streamed. It was in the top ten in 79 countries in its first week and in 88 countries in its second week. Within 18 days, it was streamed for nearly 135 million hours in around 23.6 million homes worldwide.

The Empress is the most successful German original production on Netflix since the 2020 war drama Barbarians. The series had 59.43 million hours watched worldwide from 3–9 October 2022, and it was the seventh most popular non-English series of 2022, with five weeks in the global top 10 and 159,800,000 hours watched from 25 September to 30 October.

Soundtrack

Creative liberties

Elisabeth was stated to have brown eyes. Devrim Lingnau has blue eyes.

Duchess Helene's hair was much darker and Sisi's lighter than shown, which was a major contribution in Franz Joseph's attraction to the latter.

Elisabeth and Franz Joseph's first meeting at Bad Ischl was not outdoors but during tea (with more relatives present than shown).

Sisi and Franz are shown mutually falling in love. In reality, Franz was more in love with Sisi than she was with him.

Franz did not propose publicly but had Archduchess Sophie request Ludovika's permission. Also, his proposal was not "out of the blue". Sophie had written that Franz had professed his love for Sisi shortly after he met her.

Franz Joseph's second younger brother, Karl Ludwig, was in love with Elisabeth and wanted to marry her, not Maximilian, as shown. During childhood, Karl Ludwig (who is missing from the series) and Elisabeth exchanged letters and gifts.

Sophie was resistant to Franz and Elisabeth's marriage and often fought with the empress over the upbringing of her (Elisabeth's) children. However, there is no evidence to support she actually hated Sisi. In reality, Sophie's letters and diaries positively describe her daughter-in-law.

Archduchess Sophie had formed a friendship and a rumored love affair with Napoleon II (her husband's nephew) when she was younger, not Swedish Prince Gustav, as shown. Maximilian was allegedly the result of the said relationship, not Franz Joseph, although those rumours were deemed dubious.

Franz Joseph and Maximilian had a sour relationship as adults, but there is no evidence that the latter conspired to overthrow his brother as emperor.