Handmaid’s Tale Television Adaptation: First Pictures Released

Streaming site Hulu is currently producing a ten part live action adaptation of classic dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The book is based in a patriarchal dictatorship where women are subjugated and it’s a mainstay of school syllabus reading for English Literature.

MGM made a 1990 version of the movie but it wasn’t loved by fans of the novel, here’s hoping the television series fares better but if you haven’t read the book, we recommend doing so before you watch the show!

Today, Hulu has released the very first images from the show, there aren’t any trailer releases yet but we’ll be looking out for those very soon! The first look is pretty impressive, here’s Offred pondering her life.

Elisabeth Moss of Mad Men fame is set to star as the protagonist Offred, a divorced woman who finds her bank card won’t work one day as society descends into a twisted reality.

Here’s what Hulu have to say about the official release:

The Handmaid’s Tale US
The Handmaid’s Tale UK

“The drama series, based on the award-winning, best-selling novel by Margaret Atwood, is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly part of the United States. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalist regime that treats women as property of the state. As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a Handmaid in the Commander’s household, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate a devastated world. In this terrifying society where one wrong word could end her life, Offred navigates between Commanders, their cruel Wives, domestic Marthas, and her fellow Handmaids – where anyone could be a spy for Gilead – all with one goal: to survive and find the daughter that was taken from her.”

With no official release date yet set for the series, you have plenty of time to read the novel before you sit down to watch the series! Read a review of the Handmaid’s Tale here.