The Handmaid’s Tale renewed for final season, Bruce Miller develops sequel

Elisabeth Moss plays June Osborne/Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale

US streamer Hulu has renewed its dystopian drama The Handmaid’s Tale for a sixth and final season and confirmed that showrunner Bruce Miller is “actively developing” a follow-up series.

Season five of the show, which is adapted from Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel of the same name, is set to premiere on Hulu on September 14.

The Toronto-shot series, produced by MGM Television and created for TV by Miller, helped to put Hulu on the map as a creator of high-quality original programming when it premiered in 2017. It was named best drama at the Emmys later that year, marking the first time a streaming original had won the prize. Elisabeth Moss also won the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series award at the 2017 Emmys.

The follow-up project from Miller will be based on Atwood’s novel The Testaments, released in 2019, which is the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale novel. There is no word yet on whether Moss will be involved in The Testaments.

“It has been a true honour to tell the story of Margaret Atwood’s groundbreaking novel and chillingly relevant world, and we are thrilled to bring viewers a sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale,” said Miller.

“We are grateful to Hulu and MGM for allowing us to tell this story, which unfortunately has remained as relevant as ever throughout its run and are in awe of our incredible fans for their unwavering support, and without whom we never would have gotten to this point.”

Set in the fictional Republic of Gilead, The Handmaid’s Tale takes place under a fundamentalist regime where women are treated as property of the state amid a plummeting birth rate.

Starring alongside Moss in season five are Bradley Whitford, Yvonne Strahovski, Max Minghella, O-T Fagbenle, Samira Wiley, Ann Dowd, Madeline Brewer, Amanda Brugel and Sam Jaeger.

Executive producers on the series are Miller, Warren Littlefield, Moss, Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears, Eric Tuchman, Yahlin Chang, Rachel Shukert, Sheila Hockin, John Weber, Frank Siracusa, Steve Stark and Kim Todd.

MGM handles international distribution.