Hulu Releases First ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Teaser

Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum. If that Latin phrase means anything to you, then you’re going to want to check out Hulu’s first-look teaser of the new drama The Handmaid’s Tale. And if it doesn’t, then you’re probably curious enough to watch anyway. Based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel of the same name, the series explores an America where women are stripped completely of their rights and treated as reproductive machines in a suffocating theocracy.

The talented Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) stars as Offred, a young women who serves as a Handmaid after being separated from her family when the new regime emerged. Her job is to get pregnant by a high-standing commander (played by Joseph Fiennes) in place of his barren wife, which is just as chilling as it sounds.

While the first promo does not prove much information, it sets the tone for the series very well. Everything appears stark and sterile, as the atmosphere of the Gilead regime would imply. And yet there is a sense of action building and hopefully a revolution bubbling beneath the surface, which is embodied in Offred’s final words: “I intend to survive.”

Although The Handmaid’s Tale was written decades a,go it speaks to a fear creeping throughout the country with the latest election and thus feels more relevant than ever. It remains to be seen just how Hulu will adapt the novel, but the first trailer in combination with the previous batch of promotional images suggests that it will be a faithful adaption.

The series also stars Yvonne Strahovski, Samira Wiley, O-T Fagbenle and Alexis Bladel. The first three episodes were directed by Reed Morano (HBO’s Looking), so we can expect a strong point of view for the female heroines. More information will be available later today at Hulu’s TCA Day. The Handmaid’s Tale premieres on Hulu on April 26, 2017.