Hulu announced today that the third season of their critically acclaimed drama series “The Handmaid’s Tale” will debut on June 5. That’s certainly a longer wait than fans were hoping for (season 2 debuted on April 25, 2018) and it also means the 2017 Emmy winner for Drama Series and a nominee last year won’t qualify this time around. That has to be somewhat disconcerting for the Television Academy considering there’s now a growing list of Emmy favorites that won’t debut in time.
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“The Handmaid’s Tale” joins “Big Little Lies” (now a Drama Series as opposed to Limited Series), “Stranger Things,” “Westworld,” “Mindhunter” and “Homeland” as former nominees and serious players that won’t make the end of May deadline.
Contenders that will qualify include “Killing Eve” (April 7), “The Good Fight” (March 14), “Billions” (March 17) and “The Twilight Zone” (April 1), although Netflix is known to surprise with unexpected launches. Familiar players “Ozark,” “This is Us” and “Better Call Saul” are already in the mix. New programs that have already debuted which could come into play for voters include “Succession,” “Pose” and “Homecoming.” “The Americans” was nominated last year for its final season and, obviously, is out.
Clearly, the big elephant in the room is “Game of Thrones.” The HBO pop culture landmark has already won the Best Drama Series Emmy three times including last year. It returns for a final, truncated season on April 14.
As for “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the showrunners and Hulu are keeping quiet on the storyline for season three, but a teaser did drop during the Super Bowl and it has been revealed that Christopher Meloni and Elizabeth Reaser are joining the cast as Commander and Mrs. Winslow.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” returns to Hulu on June 5.