‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Cast & Writers Talk Season Five As Episodes 1 & 2 Premiere in Toronto

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The Handmaid’s Tale cast and crew were out in force at the Toronto Film Festival on Thursday evening for the world premiere of the two first episodes of season five, ahead of their release on Hulu in the U.S.

on September 14.In a Q&A after the screening, creator Bruce Miller announced that a sixth and final season had been greenlit.Miller was joined on stage by executive producer Warren Littlefield as well as lead actress Elisabeth Moss, who directs this season, and other key cast members Yvonne Strahovski, Max Minghella, Bradley Whitford, O-T Fagbenle, Amanda Brugel and Sam Jaeger.“It’s an honor to be showing it here in Toronto, where we shot the show,” said Moss, adding that season five had been the hardest one to make so far due to its bigger scale and the challenge of shooting over the winter during the Covid pandemic.Picking up from the final scenes of season four, the new show opens in the immediate aftermath of the brutal killing of Gilead co-founder and commander Fred Waterford by June Osborne and other handmaids in the no man’s land on the border with Canada.Moss revealed that the challenge of both acting and directing had forced her to think about her role of June in more depth“I always wondered if it would distract me from the performance and from acting and I happily discovered that it deepened my understanding of June,” she said.“Normally, to be honest, when I am just acting, I don’t pay much attention.

I don’t do any of the thought that you’re supposed to do,” she said, laughing. “But when you’re a director, you have to think about it, you have to talk to the writers and actors, so I found I did a lot more work as an actor being a director.”Season five sees Waterford’s wife Serena Joy step into her