The final season of The Handmaid’s Tale is finally underway.
Hulu on Friday shared an image of series lead Elisabeth Moss holding a slate from the opening day of filming on the show’s sixth and last season. The slate shows that cameras began rolling on Sept. 3 — and that Moss is directing the first episode (she previously helmed six episodes across seasons four and five).
The Disney-owned streamer also said that season six will premiere in spring 2025, which will mean about a 2 1/2-year gap between the season five finale, which debuted Nov. 9, 2022, and the final season opener. Production on The Handmaid’s Tale had been scheduled to resume in fall 2023 but was pushed back as striking writers and actors negotiated for, and eventually won, better contracts with media companies. Other scheduling details further moved the date back.
Season five ended with a cliffhanger as June (Moss) and other refugees from the repressive nation of Gilead fleeing Toronto in hopes of finding safe passage out of Canada and to Hawaii, which in the world of the show is still part of a much smaller United States.
Showrunner Bruce Miller told The Hollywood Reporter after that episode that viewers need not fear for June’s safety too much: “The show exists because June survived,” Miller said. “The only reason the show is recorded history, in our fake world, is because she recorded it. So, she has to survive because it’s de facto what made this exist.”
Miller will remain an executive producer on the final season, but he stepped down from showrunning duties in 2023 to focus on Hulu’s follow-up series The Testaments, which like The Handmaid’s Tale is based on a novel by Margaret Atwood. Writers and executive producers Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang are steering the final season.
The final season also stars Yvonne Strahovski, Bradley Whitford, Max Minghella, Ann Dowd, O.T. Fagbenle, Samira Wiley, Madeline Brewer, Amanda Brugel, Sam Jaeger, Ever Carradine and Josh Charles.
MGM Television produces The Handmaid’s Tale. Miller executive produces with Warren Littlefield, Tuchman, Chang, Moss, Sheila Hockin, John Weber, Frank Siracusa, Steve Stark, Kim Todd, Daniel Wilson and Fran Sears.
