The first full-length trailer for Hulu's upcoming series The Handmaid's Tale has dropped, and it's a positively nightmarish two-minute watch that has us salivating for the timely series premiere. The drama, based on the bestseller by Margaret Atwood, is set in a post-America dystopian society under the rule of cult-like authoritarian regime. The fundamentalists took power in a sickeningly patriarchal effort to to restore humanity after most women become infertile. In this world, women are commodities, and their bodies — especially the few remaining fertile ones — belong to the state.
In the disturbing preview, we meet Offred (Elizabeth Moss), a member of the Handmaids class, whose duty is sexual servitude to their masters, the Commanders, whose wives are infertile. Offred had a different name and a daughter before everything changed, the memory of whom keeps her alive — along with the relationships she carefully forms with fellow handmaids played by the likes of Alexis Bledel and Samira Wiley.
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The natural disasters and social breakdowns that preceded the society's descent are only alluded to in this clip. But, as faraway and wild as this terrifying future seems, it becomes clear in just the first few seconds how sickeningly relevant the themes of the show are: the chaos that ensues when governmental order breaks down, democracy dies, freedoms are curtailed, terrorism threatens our safety, women are stripped of their rights and liberties, and humanity faces major existential threats. Any of those things sound familiar? Yeah, this one's going to be required viewing.
The Handmaid's Tale premieres on Hulu on April 26.