The Handmaid's Tale: 10 things we know so far about season 2

Few television shows land with the impact that The Handmaid’s Tale did in the turbulent, highly charged spring of 2017. As a disbelieving world watched the newly-minted President Trump issuing draconian executive orders on travel, immigration and healthcare, the show’s dystopian themes and messages spoke unnervingly accurately to the fears and anxieties of its audience.

As its star Elisabeth Moss told The Telegraph yesterday, "I have never had a show that so closely paralleled life as it was currently happening around me, especially life as a 35 year-old woman in America. So the lines have gotten much more blurry than they have with any other role I have ever done." But, she added: "It has also been really cathartic to be able to take some of the anger and frustration that I feel as a citizen, and be able to tell a story that I believe in."

Adapted from Margaret Atwood’s seminal 1985 novel, the series has swept the board at the Emmys, and earlier this month at the Golden Globes too, including Best Actress awards for Moss at both.

As part of the bi-annual Television Critics Association press tour, in Pasadena, California, yesterday Moss appeared alongside showrunner Bruce Miller and executive producer Warren Littlefield to discuss the much-anticipated second season of the show, which begins its 13-episode run in the US on April 25 (UK air date TBC). Here’s what we learnt:    

1. Margaret Atwood approves of it

This has been a major worry for ardent fans of the original book, concerned that, since season one ended (more or less) where the novel does, any further episodes would necessarily depart from Atwood’s vision.

"Margaret was a consultant on season one, and everything was run by her," said Moss. "It’s the same with season two. I think that her involvement, at this point, is almost even more important, because you are taking it beyond the book. We sent her the first two episodes, and she said, 'This is better than anything I could possibly have ever imagined.'"

2. The social and political origins of Gilead will be explored

In the fictitious Republic of Gilead, a far-right religious extremist group has overthrown the US government and destroyed the constitution; bank accounts have been frozen, and all women dismissed from their jobs – in Gilead, they are no longer permitted to drive, or even read or write.

"Using the creative approach, with multiple timelines, we are able to see: how did Gilead come about? How did it all happen?" said Littlefield.

3. Offred is on the run

The final scene of season one saw Offred – or June, to give Moss’s character her pre-Gilead name – being bundled into a van, her destination, her handlers, and their intentions unknown, to either us or her.

"That narrative is where we begin the season," said Littlefield.   

4. And she’s still pregnant

...supposedly by the Commander (Joseph Feinnes), for whom she is the designated breeder, but in reality almost certainly by his driver, Nick (Max Minghella).

"So much of this season is about motherhood," said Moss. "Bruce and I always talked about the impending birth of the child, this child that is growing inside her, as a ticking time bomb.

"It’s a wonderful thing to have a baby, but she is having it, potentially, in this world that she may not want to bring it into. And then, if she does have it, the baby gets taken away from her, and she can’t be its mother. It is very complicated and makes for good drama."

5. We’ll see the world beyond Gilead 

The second season is set to reveal more of the show's world, including the Colonies, the toxic wastelands where those committed of crimes – “UnPeople” – are sent.

As anyone who’s seen the first trailer for season two (featuring a most appropriate cover of Buffalo Springfield’s classic protest song, For What It’s Worth), will know, many of the other central characters are no longer in Gilead. "Margaret Atwood describes the Colonies, and it’s a pretty forbidding world, although in the narrative for the book, she never goes there," said Littlefield. "In episode two, we go to the colonies. It’s an expansion of our world."

"We’re still noodling around in [Atwood’s] world," Miller reassured us. "We’re not exiting that world at all."

6. Marisa Tomei will be a guest star

The Oscar-winning actress will appear in episode two. This is absolutely everything Miller would tell us about this, I'm afraid. But it's still very exciting.

7. The brutality will still be based in fact

The barbaric punishments meted out in Gilead – including stonings, mutilations and "particicutions" – will remain only those that have happened in the real world.

In writing the novel, Atwood had a rule that she "would not put any events into the book that had not already happened in what James Joyce called the 'nightmare' of history." Miller adheres to the same rule. "It is easy, especially in a show like ours, to come up with perverse cruelties," he said. "But then it just turns into pornography. It is a loser [sic] on every front to be imagining evils, when there are so many evils around that you can be pointing out."

8. It is going to feel painfully topical, again

The second series may feel very close-to-the-bone – but that’s not intentional. "I wouldn’t say that the story is ripped from today’s headlines," said Miller. "I would say that today’s headlines were ripped from the book".

They have previously had to remove lines from the show that came too close to those employed by the current US administration. "We wrote the phrase 'Make America great again' in a scene before the primaries had even started. So we had to change that line," he revealed.  

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9. It’s going to be darker… but also funny (What? Did you not find it funny?)

"I would say that it is arguably darker than season one – if that is possible," said Moss. "But there are a lot of good funny bits."

"June is funny," added Miller. "There’s a lot of horror and cruelty and dread in this situation, but there’s also a lot of absurdity. I always feel like June is this close to turning to the camera and saying: 'Really? What the actual f---?'"

10. It’s also hopeful (to Moss, at least)

"I am very hopeful," Moss insisted. "There are moments that I know this show is very dark, and I know it’s brutal – apologies – but I do think that the idea is how you rise above that brutality, how you rise above that grinding you down.

"In the last episode of season one, when they drop the stones and they band together as women – there is so much hope in that. And there are those moments again in season two, where you feel like there is hope in humanity."