Praise Be, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Was Just Renewed For A Fourth Season

Blessed be the fruit: Fans of the dystopian drama The Handmaid's Tale are in store for a whole lot more action. Though the Hulu hit is not yet done with its third season, fans have already been asking whether there will be a The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4. On July 26, they got their answer: The show has been renewed for a fourth season.

The announcement, which was made at the 2019 Television Critics Association summer press tour, is of course exciting for fans of the show, but it is not a total shock that the series would get renewed. The Handmaid's Tale has been extremely successful since its first season premiered in 2017, picking up Emmys at the 2017 and 2018 ceremonies and scoring nominations for this year's awards show.

Based on Margaret Atwood's classic novel of the same name, The Handmaid's Tale paints a truly scary picture of a theocratic government that takes its control of women's bodies to the very extreme. If you watch the show, you know how intense it can get, but despite how hard some of the scenes are to watch, fans tune in weekly in droves to see what happens to June and company.

Warning: Spoilers for The Handmaid's Tale Season 3 follow. Season 3 has largely followed June's (Elisabeth Moss) struggle to reconnect with her firstborn Hannah, after having smuggled her second daughter Nichole safely out of Gilead and into the safety of Canada. Midway through the season, following the relocation of Hannah and her new family, fans saw June start to spiral out of control, only seeming to pull it slightly together by the end of Episode 9. As of July 26, there are only three episodes left of the season, which doesn't give June a whole lot of time to carry out her latest plan, which she announced was to get the children birthed by her fellow handmaids out of Gilead.

Meanwhile, the overarching political plot of Gilead's existence has been developing. During Season 3, audiences have seen the harsh standards of Washington, D.C., slowly seep into June's home community in Boston, signifying Gilead as a whole was becoming even more oppressive. There has also been mention of other locations where Gilead's regime had either lost or overtaken, but these cities have not yet been shown on screen. It's possible the fourth season will take viewers to brand new locales.

Regardless of what new episodes will bring, fans are pumped to get more of the series. Some of the show's stars are also excited, sharing the good news on social media. Madeline Brewer, who plays the fan-favorite handmaid Janine, tweeted a pretty spot-on message immediately following the renewal announcement.

Ever Carradine, who plays Naomi Putnam, also shared her enthusiasm to revisit Gilead for at least another season.

Even Hulu got in on the celebration, with a quip that may or may not allude to its power in giving the show another run.

Though a premiere date for the new season has not yet been set, based on the series' pattern of releasing a new season every year, fans could be in store for new episodes sometime in the late spring or early summer of 2020.

For now, fans can watch the final few episodes of The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu; new episodes air on Wednesdays.