‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Spoilers: Episode 1 Introduces Elisabeth Moss as Offred in Dystopian Society; Alexis Bledel Hints Challenging Role

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ episode 1 is set to introduce Elisabeth Moss as Offred, a woman forced into servitude in a dystopian society. Meanwhile, actress Alexis Bledel talked about her challenging role as Ofglen in a recent interview.

The upcoming season premiere of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is set to introduce Moss’ Offred. The series focuses on a totalitarian and Christian-fundamentalist dystopian government, the Republic of Gilead, which has overthrown the United States.

The story is told through the perspective of Offred, a woman forced into reproductive servitude. Offred’s group are the handmaids of the ruling class in the era of low birth rates and sterility caused by sexually transmitted diseases and environmental contamination.

The short synopsis for episode 1 posted on TV Guide reads, “The series premiere of a drama about a fertile woman who is forced into sexual servitude in a dystopian society with a plunging birthrate.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Moss’ co-star Alexis Bledel talked about the challenges of bringing her character, Ofglen, to the small screen. Bledel’s character is Offred's Handmaid companion and plays a critical role in getting Offred to pass on information to the rebellion brewing in the Republic of Gilead.

When asked what enticed her to take on the role, Bledel replied, “She’s such a rich character so it’s a real opportunity for me to dig in a bit deeper. It’s endlessly interesting to play a character who had this former life and a family and an identity that was stripped from her and now she’s essentially enslaved and oppressed and fearing for her life. If she takes a misstep or says the wrong thing in front of the wrong person…there’s an underlying tension in all of the scenes.”

Showrunner Bruce Miller also teased, “I was trying to give [Ofglen] an interesting backstory about how she got caught and all these other things; it was a decision based on what I thought she’d be like.”

Miller added, “She’s such a fascinating character because from the outside it looks like she’s almost a committed bubblehead. A ‘pious sh*t.’ But she spends the whole first episode trying to figure out if Offred is someone she can trust. On one hand she seems like a pious little sh*t; on the other she’s a recruiter for the resistance. I was trying to fill her out just in all sorts of ways.”

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is an upcoming live-action adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name, which is set in the near-future in dystopian United States. It is scheduled to release its first three episodes on Hulu on April 26, 2017. The series received critical acclaim from critics.

It was created for the small screen by Bruce Miller and stars Elisabeth Moss, Samira Wiley, Joseph Feinnes, Alexis Bledel, and Yvonne Strahovski. It was executive produced by Miller, Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears, Warren Littlefield, and Atwood.