It should come as no surprise that Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale has been renewed for a second season. With rave (but disquieted) reviews emphasizing the series’ eerily well timed feminist societal admonishments, the show has earned a place atop the cultural discursive ladder in the last few weeks. It also has received the highest amount of views of any other premiere on the streaming service, Variety reports.
Margaret Atwood, the famed author of the novel on which the series is based, has likewise been appearing all over the place — of particular interest, at the end of an extended Handmaid’s Tale audiobook, in a portion that seems to hint at a sequel novel. According to Variety, the second season of the Hulu series will premiere in 2018 — and hopefully the world around us won’t have even more commonalities with the Republic of Gilead to think-piece by then.
Indiewire writes about how the series’ showrunner, Bruce Miller, always intended it to be something that could run for many seasons, noting the series’ digression from its protagonist Offred’s (Elisabeth Moss’) point of view, and the new and extended opportunities that opens up for coming seasons. He told them at the Television Critics Association press tour, “I have an enormous plan in my head. There’s so many things that are mentioned in the book, so many worlds to explore.”
It’s been a big day for Hulu — beyond this announcement, it was also revealed that they’d acquired the exclusive rights to stream Atlanta. Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin just joined their upcoming series, The Looming Tower, that, per The Hollywood Reporter, examines “how the rivalry between the CIA and FBI may have inadvertently set the stage for the tragedy of 9/11 and the war in Iraq.”