‘We’re reaching a pivot point’: The Handmaid’s Tale showrunner reveals pandemic will influence plot as new characters added for season 4
Filming on a fourth season of The Handmaid’s Tale is continuing after the COVID-19 pandemic halted production earlier this year and then posed logistical problems as cameras began to roll again.
And in an interview with THR.com, showrunner George Miller has revealed that the global pandemic is influencing his thoughts about where the Hulu original series goes in the future.
‘I know where I am in the story, and I do feel like we’re kind of reaching kind of a pivot point,’ Miller said. ‘It just feels like it’s a good time to reassess what you were thinking, just because the story world has opened up because the real world has changed so much.’
‘Pivot point’: The Handmaid’s Tale showrunner George Miller says the global pandemic is influencing his thoughts about the show’s direction. ‘The story world has opened up because the real world has changed so much’ he told THR.com
Miller shared: ‘I think the country feels like things are so up in the air, they’re waiting for them to ‘go back to normal.’ And part of the lesson of the show is they never do.
‘You don’t go back to normal, and June’s been coming to terms with that for a long time,’ he said.
‘At the beginning, she just wanted her life back exactly the way it was. Now so much has changed. So I think that’s the American story right now… And I think that is what I’m looking at.’
Everything’s changed: Miller explained: ‘I think the country feels like things are so up in the air, they’re waiting for them to ‘go back to normal.’ And part of the lesson of the show is they never do. You don’t go back to normal, and June’s been coming to terms with that for a long time’
A fifth season of the dystopian drama has been greenlit by Disney which owns Hulu even though season four is still in the process of being made.
‘We’re still shooting, kind of in the middle of the season,’ Miller explained.
‘Honestly, we’re in a situation where we have to make do with what we can get our hands on.’ he said regarding locations, cast and logistics.
‘In the end, it was surmountable, and I think we’re making an excellent show, and I’m really proud of what we’re doing, but it was hard, and it continues to be hard.’
At the end of season three, June played by Elisabeth Moss has freed children of Gilead and almost died in the process.
Season four will follow her as she tastes freedom herself for the first time in a long while as she experiences life again not ‘under the thumb of Gilead’.
Drama: At the end of season three, June, played by Elisabeth Moss, has freed children of Gilead and almost died in the process. Season four follows her as she tastes freedom herself
Filming on season 4 is continuing after COVID-19 halted production earlier this year and then posed logistical problems as cameras began to roll again. Miller and Moss are pictured in 2018
New characters have been added to the show.
British actress Zawe Ashton, 36, joins the cast as an aid worker in Toronto and the girlfriend of Samara Wiley’s character Moira.
Veteran actor Reed Birney, 66, has signed on as a new character in Gilead.
And as previously announced, McKenna Grace, 14, plays a ‘young wife’ in Gilead.
There’s still no date set for the premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale season four although it is slated to be sometime in 2021.
New faces: British actress Zawe Ashton, 36, joins the cast as an aid worker and girlfriend of Samara Wiley’s character Moira. Veteran actor Reed Birney, 66, plays a new character in Gilead
Dystopian world: There’s still no date set for the premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale season four although it is slated to be sometime in 2021