Everything you need to know about ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ S4 – plus a new trailer

The fourth season of the Toronto-shot The Handmaid’s Tale (stream seasons 1-3 on Crave) has been more than a little delayed as a result of the pandemic. But the episodes are finally ready to go, and according to the first few installments released in advance to press, this season is going to be lit. 

On February 25, Hulu presented a panel for the series at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, where the streaming service announced the first three episodes of the new season drop on April 28. Hulu also released a new, action-packed trailer revealing a few clues about what fans can expect when The Handmaid’s Tale returns. 

Unsurprisingly, June (Elisabeth Moss) survives the events of the season three finale, in which she was critically injured while saving 86 children from the clutches of Gilead. And it seems as though surviving the incident has given her incredible will and even more clout with her fellow Mayday members. 

In the promo, an underground radio reveals that those fighting for the United States are still at large, and hope is not lost. Meanwhile, June and Janine (Madeline Brewer) are seen in both their handmaids uniforms and regular street clothes (as bombs go off!?), Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) is on the hunt for June, Nick (Max Minghella) and Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) are working together on some larger plan, and speaking of Nick, it seems as though he and June have quite the steamy reunion. 

Through it all, the themes of power and resistance ring true, which may mean that this could be the most hopeful season of the series yet. And, given the past 12 months everyone has been going through, couldn’t we all use a little hope? Anyhow, in advance of the premiere, here’s what you need to know based on what etalk has seen so far and from the panel that went down at TCA. 

This season is all about power

Okay, to be fair, the show itself has always been about power, but this year in particular, the topic seems to be especially top-of-mind.

“One of the things that we deal with this season is power and what real power means and who has it,” teases Moss. “That's what so much of the book was about and what so much of our show is about. And power isn't always what it looks like. Power can be dangerous. It can be something that is destructive.”

Aunt Lydia vs. June

There’s no love lost between these ladies to be sure, but this season June and Aunt Lydia have finally had enough of each other. Aunt Lydia (whom showrunner Bruce Miller compared to Javert from Les Misérables this season) makes her feelings towards June more than clear in a memorable scene from the first episode back, and, as the trailer hints at, there could be another physical showdown between June and Aunt Lydia to come.

“We've got Lydia in this season in a Javert kind of position where she is just obsessed with June and has so much of her personal worth tied up in what June is doing and how much damage June is wreaking out in the world that she feels responsible for,” Miller says. “Although they are kind of enemies in this story, they are inextricably linked. They spend a ton of time thinking about the other one and what the other one is doing.”

Meanwhile, watch for subtle ways that June may actually be invoking her own inner Aunt Lydia this season, especially now that others are looking to her for guidance. Be warned: what you see may scare you.

Elisabeth Moss -- producer, star, director

For the past three seasons, Elisabeth Moss has starred in The Handmaid’s Tale while also producing it. (And for those wondering, she’s far from one of those passive “title” producers who don’t have any input.) That makes her job twice as busy, but she still wanted to challenge herself even further this season. And so she directed not one, not two, but three—THREE episodes—of season four. Moss’ directorial debut happens in episode 3, and her co-workers couldn’t say enough kind things about how well she did for her first time behind the camera.

“The work is just effortless and beautiful and perfect,” Miller gushes. “She deserves incredible praise all the time. But for this season, she's been remarkable, and I can't say enough.”

“It turns out she has another superpower in addition to [acting and producing],” adds executive producer Warren Littlefield. “And that's directing. To get texts at midnight from Ann Dowd to say, ‘Oh, my God. I'm in heaven with this director,’ is really quite amazing. Cheers to you.”

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The end isn’t here just yet

Miller reveals that he’ll keep doing this series as long as Moss will play with him, which, considering the accolades and awards, is a fair thing to say.

“Well, as long as Lizzie will play with me, I will keep going. As long as Lizzie will do this with me, I'll keep going,” says Miller. “Every time I come upon a season, I don't have any idea what we are going to do. And every time I get to the end of the season, I'm thrilled with what we've done—and feel like I can go on and on forever.”

Of course, there are other decision-makers who need to weigh in too, most notably MGM and Hulu, who make and air the series. For now, they’re more than happy to bank on at least another season of the show, since they renewed it for a fifth season late last year.

You may notice the pandemic

Although coronavirus doesn’t exist in the world of Handmaid’s, it certainly exists in the world of filming the show. Miller revealed that the hardest part of executing season four was physically getting his actors into the country and that, as an on-the-ground showrunner, he found it weird helming the show from the States.

While none of that can be seen onscreen in season four, there are subtle ways to see how production was impacted. There are scenes in which actors sit fairly far apart, for one. And then there’s a giant twist at the end of episode three, which was done for story purposes but may also have made pandemic protocols a little easier to follow going forward.

The biggest change though is that not all of the actors were able to return -- or to return in the capacity that the writers wanted them there. To fly in for one day of work and have to quarantine first (and after) just wasn’t practical with some of their schedules.

“We reduced the number of people in scenes. Locations where we decided to shoot was a very big question because sometimes we couldn't get things,” adds Miller. “Sometimes we'd get five people in front of the camera. Sometimes we'd get 20 people in front of the camera. So we were constantly, the entire season, making adjustments to the script and the story.”

[Stuff] is going to go down

When you’re building up a world as complex as Gilead it’s going to take some time to set everything up. But one thing that Miller admits the pandemic has pushed them to do more than anything was to start doling out those payoffs.

“We set up a lot of things, but we are making progress. We are delivering on the things that we've set up, and I think that's very satisfying," Miller says. “It was time for s--t to happen, and we tried to make s--t happen. And that made me feel like ‘Wow, you can have s--t happen, and you can still have a really interesting show.’ It makes me think there's a lot of life left in this story."

Stream seasons 1-3 of The Handmaid's Tale anytime on Crave.

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