The Handmaid’s Tale has always been a series born in response to a changing social atmosphere. From its premiere in 2017, the Hulu series’ haunting tale of a conservative dystopia and the commodification of the female body seemed more relevant than ever. And each season, Offred (Elisabeth Moss), originally named June, continued her fight to tear down Gilead by any means necessary — before being inevitably thwarted.
Almost a decade later, the message of The Handmaid’s Tale has never been more important, and the series is coming back for one final season, providing something that has been lacking throughout the entire story: hope. Ahead of its April premiere, Hulu has released the first trailer for Season 6. Check it out below:
“They believed that these garments that they put on our bodies told the world who we are,” June says over images of the assembly of the now-iconic red dresses and cloaks of the Handmaids. “They put us in Red. The color of blood,” she says. “They forgot that it's also the color of rage.”
In a montage of quick shots from the rest of the season, we see what looks to be an execution, a wedding, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) in an unsurprising fit of rage, and a horde of Handmaids running through the streets.
Since this is the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, it can sidestep the biggest problem the show has dealt with for years: once Gilead was brought down, once and for all, what happens to the story? So as the show kept getting renewed, the promise of a satisfying happy ending kept getting postponed.
It’s taken eight years and two elections, but The Handmaid’s Tale can finally do what it set out for in 2017: show a hopeful story of revolution and not letting the bastards grind you down. The world may not have changed much since Season 1, but just means the final chapters will hit all the harder.
