https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=91&v=PJTonrzXTJs
The first non-teaser trailer for The Handmaid’s Tale series has arrived and holy hell, does this look good—and terrifyingly close to our reality.
The Hulu Original adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 speculative fiction classic premieres April 25th, and we now have a trailer that is equal parts compelling and chilling. First of all, it has to be noted that the cast is top-notch: the always excellent Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) is playing the main character, Offred, who is a handmaid—a class of women kept for reproductive purposes by the ruling class, in an alterna-United States that has become a theocratic dictatorship. Joseph Fiennes, whom I once loved very deeply for Shakespeare in Love, plays the high-ranked Commander who keeps her.
Rounding out the cast are perennial faves Samira Wiley (Orange is the New Black), Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls), and Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck). I would watch these people read the phone book, so seeing them in the world of a novel that made a deep impression on me is a trip and a half.
The issues around women’s control of their own reproductive rights are as critical as ever—perhaps even more under attack now than when Atwood was writing. That fiction has become so true to life that women have been dressing in the distinctive handmaid costume to protest repressive legislation in Texas, and Atwood herself has been speaking about her book in the age of Trump.
But what feels just as prescient in today’s world is the way the trailer hammers home how easy it is to lose human rights in the face of intimidation and fear. “When they blamed terrorists and suspended the Constitution, we didn’t wake up then,” Offred says in voiceover, as we see scenes of protestors being forcibly cowed by the authorities. “Now I’m awake.”
Now I’m exceedingly excited to watch The Handmaid’s Tale, even though I’m pretty sure I’m going to find it upsetting, disturbing, and frighteningly predictive of the worst of our possible futures. What do you think?
(image via Hulu)
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