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“I was asleep before. That’s how we let it happen. When they slaughtered congress we didn’t wake up. When they blamed terrorists and suspended the constitution, we didn’t wake up then either. Now, I’m awake.”
Those are the chilling words spoken by Elisabeth Moss in the trailer for The Handmaid’s Tale, the new Hulu series based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel of the same name.
The show, coming April 26 to the US streaming service (an Australian broadcaster is yet to be announced, watch this space), focuses on Moss’ character Offred, one of many formerly free women captured and forced to be a reproductive slave for a wealthy family in the totalitarian nation of Gilead, formerly the United States.
Given attempts to roll-back women’s reproductive rights in many states across the US and the urgency of Women’s March protests around the world this year, the show’s timing is fitting and eerie, but not intended, as Moss recently explained.
“We never wanted the show to be this relevant,” the actress told Entertainment Weekly last year.
The Handmaid’s Tale will bring Atwood’s dystopian world to life, and also stars Gilmore Girls Alexis Bledel, Orange Is The New Black’s Samira Wiley and Joseph Fiennes.
The small-screen adaptation has the tick of approval from author Atwood herself.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it’s a 10,” she said during a Reddit AMA. “My criteria: puddle of goo on the floor [by the] end of episode 3. Gasp. Shriek. It goes farther than I did in the book…”
Watch the goosebump-inducing trailer for The Handmaid’s Tale.
