Elisabeth Moss announces season 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale, promising “a wild ride”

Elisabeth Moss in The Handmaid's Tale

Credit: Hulu/Channel 4

Under Her Eye


Elisabeth Moss announces season 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale, promising “a wild ride”

By Anna Brech

5 years ago

With filming for season four of The Handmaid’s Tale still underway in CanadaElisabeth Moss reveals that season five of the hit dystopian show has been given the green light – announcing the news in a cast video on Instagram

It’s the multi Emmy-winning drama that draws from Margaret Atwood’s novel of dystopian female oppression. 

Now The Handmaid’s Tale is returning to our screens for not only a fourth, but also a fifth season, on Hulu and Channel 4

The news was announced by Elisabeth Moss (who plays June/Offred) in a video posted on Instagram this week, featuring her and other cast members in a teaser of the hit fantasy series. 

“I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve been picked up for season five,” Moss tells fans, in a short message filmed from her home. “It’s my privilege and honour to tell this story […] It’s going to be a wild ride.”

Even the resident evil-doer of The Handmaid’s Tale, Commander Fred (aka Joseph Fiennes), seems happy about the new-series commission, saying: “Blessed be the new season pick-up.”

Filming for season four of the critically acclaimed show is currently underway in Ontario, Canada, after being delayed earlier this year by the outbreak of Covid-19.

It will pick up from a major cliffhanger at the end of series three that saw June help a large group of children and Marthas escape the Gilead regime, on a plane bound for North America. 

June was shot in the course of the escape mission, but she also shot dead the only guard who saw her at the scene of the crime, meaning she should be in the clear – for now.

Earlier this year, a trailer for season four hinted at where the new series may go in terms of storyline.

It begins with the immediate aftermath of the audacious getaway. Having chosen not to leave Gilead, an injured June is seen carried away by her fellow Handmaids.

“I can’t rest,” she says, explaining why she didn’t join the other women in escaping the patriarchal Divine Republic. “My daughter deserves better. We all deserve better. Change never comes easy. This war isn’t going to win itself.” 

Other intriguing snippets from the trailer show June and her Squad dressed in the clothes of the Marthas; presumably on the run from the Gileadean authorities. They also coin the iconic phrase “blessed be the Squad.”

Most of the principal cast is billed to return for the next 10-episode helping of The Handmaid’s Tale, which will be released sometime next year on Hulu and Channel 4. 

As well as Moss reprising her role as the defiant Handmaid-turned rebel June, Alexis Bledel will pick up as Emily/Ofglen, with Joseph Fiennes as Commander Fred and fan-favourite Samira Wiley as Moira.

The TV series has long overtaken the events of Atwood’s 1985 novel, so – beyond the hints we can pick up on in the trailer – what happens in season four is shrouded in mystery. But drama is guaranteed: with season five already in the works, it’s time, as one cast member says, to “hold on to your seats”. 

Images: Hulu/Channel 4 

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