WMG / Medici

• The show will eventually cover the downfall of the Medici Bank
  We know now that Season 2 will jump ahead to Lorenzo the Magnificent, and the creators expect to spend at least two seasons on him. The question is, where do they go after they tell that story? After Lorenzo things go decidedly pear-shaped for the Medici, especially once they make the fatal mistake of bankrolling both sides of the Wars of the Roses.
  • Well, Lorenzo's younger son eventually becomes the Pope (Leo X), under whose tenure the infamous sale of indulgences happened, which led to the publication of a certain document containing 95 theses by a certain German monk, that sparked Protestantism and religious upheaval for the next century and a half throughout Europe. And Giuliano's son also became a Pope (Clement VII), and guess who ruled England during his tenure, who turned out to be a big headache for him? Basically a 3rd or 4th series could focus on the fourth generation's (Giovanni onwards) struggles with Savonarola, the Borgias, the Habsburgs, the Tudors, the French Valois and of course, Martin Luther. Of course, most of the focus would shift out Florence, but it certainly would be too interesting to ignore, considering that their era was marked by the family's greatest triumphs (which included them being made hereditary Dukes of Florence, and hence its permanent masters till 1737, but ending their official vocation as bankers) as well as its greatest failures (the Reformation, the 1527 Sack of Rome), making it somewhat apt as a finale.

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