'The Handmaid's Tale' Season 2 Could Still Be Far Away

Now that the first season of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale is coming to a conclusion, fans are sure to be desperate for more. There's good news and bad news about that: the show has been renewed for a second season, but there might be a long wait between new episodes. Streaming services usually allow more time to pass between seasons than network television does, and there are all sorts of other things to take into account like production and scheduling. Any number of things can delay new episodes a little longer. But when does The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 premiere?

We know for a fact that Season 2 will premiere sometime in 2018, but so far that's all the information out there about it. With a release date that vague, it's hard to pin things down further, but it seems like it will be more than six months before the new season debuts. If the show chooses to premiere in late April like Season 1 did, then it would be almost a year. When it comes to Hulu's release schedule for new seasons of their shows, there doesn't seem to be much of a pattern outside of the lengthy gap in between, which is sure to be disappointing for fans eager to see where the story of The Handmaid's Tale will go. But don't worry — that time will pass before you know it. Probably.

Anticipation for Season 2 will likely be high because it's set to explore uncharted territory. While readers of Margaret Atwood's original novel might have known what to expect from Season 1 (at least generally), anything could happen in Season 2. The world of Gilead is rich with possibility, and only a portion of those storylines were touched on in Atwood's book because it focused so closely on Offred's journey. The Hulu series has the ability to widen the scope and tackle unexpected issues.

During The Hollywood Reporter's TV Talks panel, Elisabeth Moss spoke about how important it was to give various aspects of the story time to breathe and develop so that they could really explore them deeply. She also mentioned how much ground there was left to cover, both because some things had been left out of Season 1 and because the book left so much unsaid. "There's a huge gap between the epilogue and the end of the book where there's a lot of unanswered questions," Moss stated. "There's so much there that hasn't been said in the book, and we're looking to explore that with Margaret."

The fact that the show has Atwood's approval to do so is particularly reassuring. She was involved in the production of Season 1 (even appearing in a scene if you were quick enough to catch her), but she speculated to Entertainment Weekly that she might have more to do with Season 2 because of the new content being added to the story. "I think it will be more involving in the second season because we will be in uncharted territories so more invention will have to take place," Atwood said.

The path Season 2 will take is unpredictable, but fans have plenty of time to theorize about it before it's back.