Warning, spoilers ahead.
The Handmaid's Tale is coming back on our screens after over two years.
The beloved dystopian drama may be one of TV's most challenging and confronting offerings, but it's also one of its most rewarding. Based on the iconic novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale sets the scene in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, now a totalitarian state where fertile women are forced to be Handmaids who bear children for wealthy families.
Ever since the first series premiered in 2017, we've been hooked on the story of June, who is given the name Offred when she is made Handmaid to Commander Fred Waterford and his wife Serena Joy. We've followed June's horrifying journey for five seasons — when we left her, she was embarking on a search for her daughter, Hannah as Gilead threatened to expand beyond the borders of Canada.
Here's everything we know about the sixth season of The Handmaid's Tale.
Praise be. Here's everything we know so far.
You can watch the new season on both Amazon Prime Video and Channel 4. The first three episodes are available to stream on both Channel 4. The next episode is dropping on Saturday 24 May on Amazon Prime Video and Channel 4, but you'll have to watch with adverts on the latter.
With a trusted VPN, you can watch The Handmaid's Tale on US streaming service Hulu, which is ahead of the UK in its episode schedule, having dropped 7 episodes at the time of writing.
The first three episodes of The Handmaid's Tale season 6 has followed June's quest for refuge in Alaska and discovers that her mother Holly is actually still alive, and was arrested and sent to the Colonies for speaking out against the rise of Gilead. She heads back to Gilead when she hears that Nick and Moira (Samira Wiley) have gone missing, entrusting Nicole to her mother. Meanwhile Serena also headed back to Gilead, where sh*t quickly gets very real – at the risk of divulging spoilers, we will leave our synopsis right here.
A lot has happened in five seasons of The Handmaid's Tale. At the beginning of the series, June was separated from her husband, Luke, and daughter Hannah and forced to live as a Handmaid for a powerful Gilead couple, Fred and Serena. Over the years, June has fought back against the oppressive regime. At the end of season 4, June enacted her revenge, killing Fred in the woods with a group of other Handmaids, leaving Serena in a Canadian prison.
In season 5, June finds herself at odds with some of the Handmaids who have followed her in the resistance movement — they want revenge, too, but June is more interested in getting her daughter out of Gilead. Meanwhile, Serena seems to step into Fred's shoes as the show's most ominous figure.
At the end of the season, June finds herself on a train for Vancouver along with Nicole, Serena, and her baby. At the time, star and producer Elisabeth Moss called it "a pretty positive ending for the show and the season, which we don’t usually do. It’s a cliffhanger, but there’s something quite positive about it."
According to the official synopsis, “In the final season of The Handmaid's Tale, June's unyielding spirit and determination pull her back into the fight to take down Gilead. Luke and Moira join the resistance. Serena tries to reform Gilead while Commander Lawrence and Aunt Lydia reckon with what they have wrought, and Nick faces challenging tests of character. This final chapter of June's journey highlights the importance of hope, courage, solidarity, and resilience in the pursuit of justice and freedom.”
Get excited about small screen offerings for 2025.
Yes, the upcoming sixth season of Handmaid's Tale is officially the final season of the show.
The Handmaid's Tale is due to premiere in the US on 6 April. Although the UK release date hasn't been officially announced, based on previous seasons, it's likely that it will land on our screens on Channel 4 a month or after the US premiere.
While it has been confirmed that episodes will drop in the US on 8 April, UK fans will have to wait until 3 May when episodes will drop on Amazon Prime Video. It's also expected that Channel 4 will air episodes simultaneously, but a release date or further information on that hasn't been confirmed.
There is — and brace yourself, it's just as intense as we could imagine.
“For years we've been afraid of them,” June says as the trailer begins. “Now it's time for them to be afraid of us. This is the beginning of the end.”
Throughout the trailer, we see glimpses of what is to come: a rebellious uprising, a very eerie wedding for Serena and a new character played by Josh Charles.
Although this will be the final season of The Handmaid's Tale, this isn't the end of the story of Gilead. An adaptation of Atwood's The Testaments, which picks up 15 years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, is in the works.
Season six’s showrunner Yahlin Chang has already stated in an interview with TV Insider that the upcoming season will leave some clues for The Testaments. “There will be cliffhangers for The Testaments,” she said. “Any fans that are left wanting more are going to get more in The Testaments, which will be great for them. But [The Handmaid’s Tale] does conclude – in some very satisfying ways – many of the storylines, but not every single one.”
When life imitates art.
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