<P> A straight - to - series order by Hulu of The Handmaid's Tale was announced in April 2016, with Elisabeth Moss set to star . Based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood, the series was created by Bruce Miller, who is also an executive producer with Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears, and Warren Littlefield . Atwood serves as consulting producer giving feedback on some of the areas where the series expands or modernizes the book,, and also had a small cameo role in the first episode . Moss is also a producer . In June 2016, Reed Morano was announced as director of the series . Samira Wiley, Max Minghella, and Ann Dowd joined the cast in July 2016 . Joseph Fiennes, Madeline Brewer and Yvonne Strahovski were cast in August 2016, followed by O.T. Fagbenle and Amanda Brugel in September 2016 . In October 2016, Ever Carradine joined the cast, and Alexis Bledel was added in January 2017 . </P> <P> Filming on the series took place in Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, and Cambridge, Ontario from September 2016 to February 2017 . The first full trailer of the TV series was released by Hulu on YouTube on March 23, 2017 . The series premiered on April 26, 2017 . </P> <P> On May 3, 2017, The Handmaid's Tale was renewed for a second season to premiere in 2018 . Moss told the news media that the subsequent episodes will cover further developments in the story, filling in some of the unanswered questions and continuing the narrative already "finished" in the book . The second season will consist of 13 episodes and will begin filming in fall 2017 . Alexis Bledel will return as a series regular . Showrunner Bruce Miller stated that he envisioned ten seasons of the show, stating "Well, you know, honestly, when I started, I tried to game out in my head what would ten seasons be like? If you hit a home run, you want energy to go around the bases, you want enough story to keep going, if you can hook the audience to care about these people enough that they're actually crying at the finale .". </P> <P> The first three episodes of the series premiered on April 26, 2017, with the subsequent seven episodes added on a weekly basis . In Canada, the series is broadcast by Bravo, beginning with the first two episodes premiering on April 30 . In Scandinavia, the series is available on HBO Nordic . In the UK and Ireland, the series premiered on May 28, 2017 and airs every Sunday on Channel 4 . </P>

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