NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 17: Joseph Fiennes (Photo by Adela Loconte/WireImage)
Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale has its lead. Joseph Fiennes will portray Commander Fred Waterford a powerful founding father of Gilead and the ruler of the household in which Offred (Elizabeth Moss) is a handmaid.
Follow the jump for details. The Handmaid’s Tale is slated to go into production later this Fall to be ready for a 2017 premiere.
Today Hulu announced Joseph Fiennes will play Commander Fred Waterford in The Handmaid’s Tale.
- Joseph Fiennes has joined the cast of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale as ‘Commander Fred Waterford’
- A founding father of Gilead and powerful, high-ranking official, Commander Waterford rules the household where Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a handmaid.
- The Handmaid’s Tale comes to Hulu from MGM Television and is created, executive produced and written by Bruce Miller, with Warren Littlefield, Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears, and Ilene Chaiken serving as executive producers. Atwood is a consulting producer for the series.
- Reed Morano will direct and executive produce the first three episodes.
- The Handmaid’s Tale is scheduled to go into production in Toronto this fall. The 10-episode series is slated to premiere in 2017.
- The drama series, based on the award-winning, best-selling novel by Margaret Atwood, is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly part of the United States. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalism that treats women as property of the state. As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a Handmaid in the Commander’s household, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate a devastated world. In this terrifying society where one wrong word could end her life, Offred navigates between Commanders, their cruel Wives, domestic Marthas, and her fellow Handmaids – where anyone could be a spy for Gilead – all with one goal: to survive and find the daughter that was taken from her.