The Handmaid’s Tale was one of the most talked about TV shows of last year, and its recent awards success has only cemented its status as one of strongest and most important TV shows of recent year’s. The Margaret Atwood adaptation, which calls Hulu’s Streaming Service its home, will be coming back for a second season this year on April 25th, and Hulu have released the first trailer, which you can check out below:
With that haunting cover of ‘For What It’s Worth’ accompanying it, the shows looks to still hold the same power to disturb with its depiction of an alternative reality which sees women’s civil rights aggressively restricted. “Handmaid’s” producers and star Elisabeth Moss recently sat with Variety to discuss the new season, which will move beyond Atwood’s original text as well as addressing the cliffhanger ending of Season One. “So much of this season is about motherhood,” Moss said. “We’ve talked a lot about the impending birth of the child that’s growing inside of her as a bit of a ticking time bomb, The complications are really wonderful to explore. She does have the baby, but it gets taken away from her. She can’t be its mother. It makes for good drama.”
Atwood has remained involved as a consultant as the season looks to explore Atwood’s rich text in ways that move beyond the page all the whilst staying true to the thematic concerns of Atwood’s novel, as creator Bruce Miller states: “We saved a lot of things from Season 1. We kept a nice long list,” he said. “It’s just an expansion of that world. We’re not exiting that world [of the novel] at all.” With the #MeToo movement and the treatment of women in Hollywood and beyond dominating the headlines, The Handmaid’s Tale has the potential to be even more timely than its first season, although Miller has been keen to downplay the influence of current events on the development of the show: “I wouldn’t say that the story is ripped from today’s headlines,” he said. “I would say that today’s headlines were ripped from the book.”
The series will be on Hulu from April 25th, with it being likely that Channel 4 will once again air the show in the UK later this year.
