<Tr> <Th> Original release </Th> <Td> April 26, 2017 (2017 - 04 - 26)--present (present) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> External links </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Website </Td> </Tr> <P> The Handmaid's Tale is an American dystopian drama web television series created by Bruce Miller, based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood . It was ordered by the streaming service Hulu as a straight - to - series order of 10 episodes, for which production began in late 2016 . The plot features a dystopian future following a Second American Civil War wherein a totalitarian society subjects fertile women, called "Handmaids", into child - bearing servitude . </P>

When do handmaid's tale episodes come out