A 'The Handmaid's Tale' Season Two First Look Is Here
The Handmaid’s Tale season 2 is officially underway, and now we know when to expect the return of Offred, Moira, and the other citizens and defectors of Gilead. On Tuesday, Hulu announced its Emmy-winning drama will be coming back in April 2018 with a short but spooky teaser. The video, which Hulu released via the show’s official Twitter, is captioned “No turning back.” It shows a Handmaid running down a dark corridor while a menacing soundtrack plays in the background. If you get goosebumps while watching it, you’re not alone.
The teaser’s pretty short on other details for season 2, which is currently under production. Still, if the “No turning back” tagline is a clue, the next installment could mean Offred’s escape mission from Gilead was successful. (If you don’t want spoilers, turn back now.) The finale ended on a nail-biting cliffhanger, with June/Offred (Elizabeth Moss) getting picked up by Nick (Max Minghella) in a black van. Although the van belongs to the Eyes, Gilead’s secret police, Nick whispers to her to trust him. Whether Nick is really just a spy for Gilead, or a double agent for the resistance movement, was left intentionally ambiguous. If you’ve read Margaret Atwood’s novel, you’ll know that the story ends there. (The epilogue, however, suggests that Nick was, in fact, part of the resistance.)
Watch the teaser, below:
https://twitter.com/HandmaidsOnHulu/status/930480467635093504
This means that while the novel’s fans were at a distinct advantage during season one, we’ll all start on equal footing as season 2 delves into uncharted territory. But we do have one tiny clue, thanks to Moss, that will probably just make you even more confused than before.
“I have been saying, about the opening [scene] of season 2, that whatever you think it’s going to be—just throw it out,” she said on Watch What Happens Now Live with Andy Cohen, according to Refinery29. It’s gone in a completely different way that I never would have expected.” So I guess if you thought Offred was screwed, you should assume the complete opposite happened, or vice versa.
Besides that, IMDB says season 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale will have 13 episodes, with members of the main cast returning for all or most of them. If you take that literally, that means Serena Joy, Commander Fred, Nick, Ofglen, Moira, and other major characters will play significant roles in Offred’s season 2 journey. But there’s lots of other possibilities for why they’ll return, like flashbacks or parallel stories. Guess we’ll have to wait until next April to find out. In the meantime, you could stream every episode of another critically acclaimed Atwood adaptation, Netflix’s historical murder-mystery psychological thriller Alias Grace.
Blessed be the binge.
Related: Today in Must-Watch: There’s a ‘Meninist’ Parody of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’