‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Picked Up For Third Season, Leaving Creator Bruce Miller Seven More To Go

Based on the 1985 novel written by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale took the Hulu subscribers by storm when the series premiered in April of 2017. Despite being a notably dark and cringe-worthy series, it was also incredibly popular.

As fans of the series already know, Handmaid’s Tale premiered Season 2 last week – airing the third episode of Season 2 this past Wednesday. What some fans may not know is how well the Season 2 premiere did. According to The Hollywood Reporter, while streaming giants such as Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix prefer not to release specific viewership statistics, Hulu revealed the audience had doubled in size when compared to the premiere of Season 1.

Given how many awards the series gained for Season 1 – including the Emmy and Golden Globe for Best Drama Series – it comes as no surprise this Hulu Original has been picked up for a third season. In fact, this is the first streaming series to win an Emmy for Best Drama Series. In total, the series has won over 30 different awards and accolades since debuting Season 1.

During an interview with The New York Times after Season 1 of the series ended, creator Bruce Miller was asked how many seasons he could see the dystopian-themed series running for. Miller revealed he had ideas in mind for as many as 10 seasons.

We are thrilled to announce today that our Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning Original Series The Handmaid's Tale will be returning for a third season! pic.twitter.com/hjFns0bNJp

— Hulu (@hulu) May 2, 2018

“Well, you know, honestly, when I started, I tried to game out in my head what would ten seasons be like? If you hit a home run, you want energy to go around the bases, you want enough story to keep going, if you can hook the audience to care about these people enough that they’re actually crying at the finale.”

According to Miller, he wanted to make sure he had enough material to continue to progress the story in the event that it was a “home run.” Given that the audience of the series has more than doubled in size and the series has more than 30 awards under its belt – including awards that have never been given to a streaming series – one could argue the series has indeed been a “home run.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiUmULDDfxs/?hl=en&taken-by=elisabethmossofficial

Star Elisabeth Moss even took to Instagram to celebrate the series would return for Season 3. Considering Moss captioned her photo “We’re coming for ya,” fans can assume Moss will likely make a return to the series for Season 3.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiSOdYKjA1G/?hl=en&taken-by=elisabethmossofficial

If Season 3 follows the same schedule as Season 1 and Season 2, it will likely return to Hulu in April 2019.

Handmaid’s Tale Season 2, Episode 4 will air on Wednesday, May 9.