HuluHulu's pulling out all the stops for its newest original show The Handmaid's Tale. The streaming platform is running its first ad for an original series during the 2017 Super Bowl.
In the spot, which you can see below, viewers meet Elisabeth Moss' Offred, the titular handmaid in The Handmaid's Tale. The series, which is based on the novel by Margaret Atwood, is set in the dystopia of Gilead. It was once part of the United States, but is now ruled as a totalitarian society. There's a plunging birthrate in Gilead and environmental disasters galore, and women treated as property. Fertile women, including Offred, are handmaids, forced into sexual servitude to repopulate the world. Commanders, like Joseph Fiennes' character, rule with an iron fist, with their cruel Wives, like Chuck's Yvonne Strahovski by their sides.
The cast also includes Orange Is the New Black's Samira Wiley, Gilmore Girls veteran Alexis Bledel, The Mindy Project's Max Minghella, Madeline Brewer of OITNB, The Leftovers' Ann Dowd and Looking's O-T Fagbenle. Bruce Miller created the drama and serves as executive producer and writer. Warren Littlefield, Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears and Illene Chaiken are executive producers on the project.
As Offred says in the trailer, she used to have a different name. She also used to have a daughter and she'll stop at nothing to get her back. Bledel plays Ofglen, a fellow handmaid and Offred's companion. Things start out icy between the two, but Offred quickly finds out Ofglen is just as subversive as her. This is Bledel's first gig since reprising her role of Rory in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.
The Handmaid's Tale premieres Wednesday, April 26 on Hulu. The first season is 10 episodes.