Looking for a show to engage your morbid curiosity? Come April 26th your search will come to a decisive end. Per The Verge, on Thursday Hulu released new trailer for The Handmaid’s Tale and it is even more chilling and uncanny than the first teasers. The new trailer features Elisabeth Moss as Offred, Alexis Bledel as Ofglen, Joseph Fiennes as the Commander, and Yvonne Strahovski as Serena Joy.
The Handmaid’s Tale is based on the 1985 dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood. With themes ranging from terrorism to religious warfare and extremism, The Handmaid’s Tale is the story of how an extreme and intolerant Christian sect uses the fear of terrorist attacks from the Middle East to seize power, wage war on all other religions, and control the marital and reproductive rights of women. Offred (called because she is the property “Of Fred”) is torn from her family to become a strictly controlled baby maker for one of the powerful couples of Gilead, the new name for the United States. The most frightening part of The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t the gruesome public executions, the slave labor, or the psychological control: it’s that it all seems possible.
This series is airing on the tale of an increased interest in Atwood’s novel which started receiving renewed attention after the 2016 presidential election, and this new trailer has viewers talking politics once again. With themes like extreme patriarchy, religious fundamentalism, and human rights; this series is a melting pot of social anxiety.
The series was written and created by Bruce Miller, who will be joined by Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears, and Warren Littlefield as executive producers.
Overall, The Handmaid’s Tale is just a little too realistic for comfort, but just realistic enough to give you the heebie jeebies.