Praise Be, 'The Handmaid's Tale' Season 5 Has Been Confirmed

From ELLE

As viewers await season 4 of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, a fifth installment has already been confirmed. The cast, led by star Elisabeth Moss, confirmed in a recent Instagram video that the series will return for season 5. Renewal of The Handmaid's Tale arrives before season 4, which was delayed due to the pandemic, premieres on Hulu this year.

The Emmy-winning series, created by Bruce Miller and based on Margaret Atwood's novel of the same name, has resumed production on its abbreviated fourth season, and will premiere at some point in 2021 with 10 episodes (as opposed to the show's usual 13). It's unclear how many episodes the fifth season will contain, but the cast and crew are eager to get started. "We’re very grateful to Hulu and MGM that the show will be returning for a fifth season, and especially to our loyal fans for their support,” Miller said in a statement, per The Hollywood Reporter. “We are thrilled to be able to continue to tell these stories, with our incredible cast and crew, and can’t wait to be back on the air with season four next year.”

Here's everything we know about the show's return to Gilead and what the showrunner has said about season 5 and beyond.

Season 5 has been confirmed.

On December 10, Moss was joined by several of her Handmaid's Tale cast members to announce that season 4 filming had resumed and season 5 was on the way:

The fifth season will follow whatever events take place in season 4. At the end of the third season, June (Moss) strategized an overthrow of Gilead, transporting dozens of children to Canada and starting an all-out war in the process.

Most of the cast is expected to return.

Without seeing the fourth season, it's nearly impossible to guess which cast members will be returning. But as of early 2021, it's safe to assume that most of the ensemble will be back, including Moss, Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Alexis Bledel, Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd, O.T. Fagbenle, Max Minghella, Samira Wiley, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Brugel, and Sam Jaeger, who has been promoted to series regular for season 4.

Other season 4 cast additions include Mckenna Grace (The Haunting of Hill House) as Mrs. Keyes, the much-younger wife of a Commander; Zawe Ashton (Velvet Buzzsaw) as Moira's (Wiley) girlfriend; and Reed Birney (House of Cards) as a Gilead resident, Miller told THR.

There's no release date yet.

The premiere dates for both seasons 4 and 5 of The Handmaid's Tale have not been unveiled. We do know that the fourth season will debut in 2021, meaning a 2022 release for the fifth season could happen.

Season 5 may not be the last.

As for how far into the future The Handmaid's Tale goes, showrunner Bruce Miller hasn't decided. Miller told The Hollywood Reporter that while he had "very different ideas" about a timeline pre-pandemic, his thoughts had changed. He continued, "I do feel like after this year, it's a good time to reassess. So I know where I am in the story, and I do feel like we're kind of reaching kind of a pivot point, but whether that's the end or not, I don't know. It just feels like it's a good time to reassess what you were thinking, just because the story world has opened up because the real world has changed so much."

Future seasons may be TBD, but a Handmaid's-related spinoff is confirmed. Hulu has secured the rights to Atwood's 2019 sequel novel, The Testaments. Miller admitted to THR that "production difficulties" amid quarantine had impacted the project, but that it was still in the works. "I mean, you're kind of already laying the groundwork for The Testaments [on The Handmaid's Tale], because now I know a little bit about more in the future than I knew before," he told the outlet.

Watch seasons 1-3 of The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu

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