The first full length trailer for the impending ten-episode Hulu adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s classic dystopian novel The Handmaids Tale has been released, and in it, we learn how bad things have gotten in a future America.
The reality of The Handmaids Tale depicts America as a theocratic society called Gilead in which women have no rights. Sex ceremonies abound and secret police are everywhere. This trailer shows how we got there.
Offred, played by Elizabeth Moss, explains in voiceover how the constitution was suspended and too many citizens were “asleep” and “didn’t wake up.” The trailer showcases how, before her world turned upside down, Offred’s boss had to fire her thanks to new laws prohibiting women from working. Because of an infertility drought, fertile women like Offred undergo intensive biblical-laden training in order to become glorified concubines in this new future. Those who aren’t Handmaids are wives, household servants, or “unwomen” who are sent away or killed. Alexis Bledel’s mysterious character Offglen is shown apparently being led away.
Gilead is a world of paranoia in which Handmaids must travel in pairs not for safety but to spy on each other. Every member of the wealthy household Offred is assigned to — from the cook to the driver to the Commander— has their own agenda.
The Handmaid’s Tale premieres on April 26 on Hulu.
