It’s only fitting that today, on International Women’s Day, Hulu would drop a chilling new teaser for their adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. After all, the story takes place in a dystopian future when the U.S. government has been overthrown by a faction who calls themselves The Gilead and women have been enslaved as so-called handmaids, their only purpose being to procreate for the Gilead’s aristocracy. In the new teaser, dubbed “Her Story Is Our Story,” we see glimpses of life before the Gilead’s takeover, as Elisabeth Moss' character does normal things, like kiss her husband, (voluntarily) give birth to her child, and visit an aquarium. Those scenes are intercut with close-ups of Moss, who is eventually renamed Offred, as she puts on the handmaid uniform: a billowing red cloak.
Eventually, those scenes of regular life are replaced with shots of protests and glimpses of the Gilead’s military hunting down the remaining population. We end on a shot of Moss in full handmaid uniform. It’s chilling stuff. In an upcoming issue of NYLON, Moss and the rest of the cast talk about the undeniable parallels between the show and our current reality, and if you take a look at some of the slogans on the signs during the protest scene, it feels almost a little too real. The Handmaid’s Tale begins streaming on Hulu on April 26. Check out the trailer above.
