Yesterday was Disney Investor Day and it brought a ton of news related to sci fi TV. Among the announcements was a fifth-season renewal for Disney-owned Hulu’s dystopian series The Handmaid’s Tale ahead of that show’s Season 4 premiere. The news does not come as a huge surprise seeing as it is one of the streamer’s most-watched originals and it has racked up quite a number of Emmys. What is interesting about the renewal, though, is that it allows the show to break the four-year wall. The streaming services have tended to cap off their original series around the third or fourth season, even their more popular ones. Original content helps drive new subscribers, but mostly during the first few seasons, and diminishing returns set in over time. The Handmaid’s Tale has been an Emmy darling, though, so perhaps that is helping to keep it viable for Hulu. It will now be the first original for this streamer to go past four seasons, and the showrunner has plans for seven to eight total. The fourth season is currently set to premiere in the first half of 2021, and a spin-off series is also in the works at the streaming service.
The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in a dystopian near-future when fertility among women has dropped to catastrophically low rates across the world. A totalitarian, theocratic government has taken over much of the United States, creating ridged social classes and controlling the few women who are still capable of bearing children. It stars Elisabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Alexis Bledel, Madeline Brewer, and Ann Dowd and it is based on the book of the same name by Margaret Atwood.
We are still waiting for renewal anouncements on Hulu’s In the Dark and Monsterland as well as other shows like Amazon’s Tales from the Loop, HBO’s Lovecraft Country, and AMC’s Dispatches from Elsewhere, so stay tuned for more announcements. You can see the status of all the currently airing, returning, and upcoming sci fi and fantasy shows on our Cancellation Watch Page. And be sure to stay tuned to this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
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