In what year did the TV series premiere?

The TV series premiered in 2017, with its first three episodes released on Hulu on April 26 of that year.

Created by Bruce Miller, the series adapts Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel about Gilead, a totalitarian theocracy that enslaves fertile women as Handmaids. Hulu ordered the project as a 10-episode series, and production began in 2016, primarily in Ontario.

The 2017 premiere is often confused with later season debuts. Season two premiered in 2018, season three in 2019, and season four in 2021. The first season became a major critical success, winning eight Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series.

The premiere also established Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne, later known as Offred, and introduced Gilead’s rigid social hierarchy, the Red Center, the Ceremony, and the conflict between personal survival and resistance.