What Book The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 Is Based on, Explained
The ongoing season 6 will become the last one for The Handmaid’s Tale, but there is also a book the show is based on. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
There’s not so much time left until the final truth is revealed to The Handmaid’s Tale’s audiences on May 27, though some might have found an easier way to unravel numerous mysteries thanks to Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel.
The book of the same name became the sole basis not just for Hulu ’s hit series, but also for a 1990 film film, a 2000 opera and many other pop cultural things you might want to check out waiting for The Handmaid’s Tale’s next episode.
Still, the show spawning 6 complete seasons might have been an issue for those who had no clue about what book to start with — luckily, there aren’t so many options.
Which Book Is the Source Material for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6?
So far, there are only two existing novels in The Handmaid’s Tale’s franchise, with those being the original one of the same name and a sequel The Testaments, published in 1985 and 2019 respectively.
Hulu’s series, in its turn, is based only on the first novel, while the sequel story has been confirmed to turn into yet another show which is now in the works.
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Naturally, many fans might have expected the show’s literary source material to have a bigger scope, considering that The Handmaid’s Tale’s 6 seasons aren’t lacking major events.
However, some of those familiar with the book have addressed the issue before, praising the series for going further than the original novel.
“The show shows so much more of the “world” of Gilead than the book was able to. The book is told only from the perspective of “Offred”, and she is more isolated than the show’s “June”, in fact in the book we never even learn her real name”, Redditor LazyZealot9428 once wrote in a thread.
Fans Still Divided Over The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6
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Even though things have been going smoothly for the show’s final season so far, there’s still a polarizing amount of good and bad reviews that brought the new installment down to 62% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Happily this is the last season of a series that started so well and then degenerated into tedious repetition. The episodes directed by Elisabeth Moss do nothing to help, consisting as they do of a series of long shorts punctuated by Extreme Close-ups, usually of Elisabeth Moss looking angry. I suppose when you are the star and a producer you can get away with having no talent for film-making”, Edward L wrote on the website.
“Loving this season so far. Only 3 episodes in but I'm very pleased with where we are going. The cinematography, the light, the music, the acting, the characters meeting/seeing each other again, the jokes here and there, the emotional scenes... Absolutely love it and glad to see so many call backs from S1 and 2. It's going to be an amazing ending to this beautiful show”, Anna D commented before the fourth episode’s release this week.
When Is The Handmaid’s Tale Next Episode Streaming?
The show’s season 6 episode 5 will drop on Hulu on April 22. The remaining five episodes will be released every Tuesday until May 27.
