‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 5 Teaser: Elisabeth Moss Is on the Run After Murdering a Commander
Praise be, “The Handmaid’s Tale” is back for Season 5.
The Hulu drama series based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel returns September 14, picking up after ex-handmaid June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) killed Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes). Waterford’s wife Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) seeks revenge.
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The teaser for Season 5 shows a flashback to Commander Waterford being chased by handmaids through the woods, with Emily Malek (Alexis Bledel) among those attacking him. June (Moss) is then seen washing blood off her hands. “I want her to know it was me,” June says, referencing Serena who begins plotting a mission against June.
Max Minghella, O-T Fagbenle, Ann Dowd, and more round out the cast. Bledel previously announced she will not be appearing in Season 5 “after much thought.”
Since premiering in 2017, “The Handmaid’s Tale” has earned 75 Emmy Award nominations and 15 wins, including acting trophies for Moss, Dowd, Bledel, Bradley Whitford, and Samira Wiley.
Moss also directed episodes of Season 4. The “Shining Girls” actress exclusively told IndieWire that helming “The Handmaid’s Tale” was the “most fulfilling thing creatively I’ve ever done,” adding, “What I wanted to do was [direct] on this show, because I’m so knowledgeable about the show and I wanted to take that a step further. I felt like I could do it. And then I just ended up really, really loving it.”
Moss called the series “cathartic” as a whole.
“In life so often, especially as women, we’re not allowed — or it’s not thought best for us — to be too angry or too vocal about our anger,” Moss said. “I’m screaming for all of us, every woman who has ever wanted to just really give it to somebody…. What I was trying to do was not let the audience look away.”
IndieWire critic Ben Travers applauded Moss’ “stunning” grip on the series and talent to “create haunting images that will stick with viewers and contorts confined spaces into distinct torture chambers.”
Travers wrote, “From the cinematography to the set design, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ remains an utterly transportive TV show, where even if its unrelenting darkness stretches the limits of reason, the care and intention clear in every scene keeps you hooked into June’s reality.”
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 5 debuts September 14 on Hulu.
Check out the trailer below.
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