'The Handmaid's Tale' Season 3 Trailer: Let The Revolution Begin

After a bleak second season, Hulu's acclaimed drama The Handmaid's Tale is returning this summer, and it looks like June's (Elisabeth Moss) climactic decision at the end of season 2 is going to pay off in a big way. A new trailer for season 3 has arrived and it seems to herald a change in tone for the show, leaving the misery porn behind and moving into an exciting new phase in which June begins to actually affect some serious change in the oppressive regime of Gilead. Check it out below.

When June chose to stay in Gilead in season 2 instead of finally making her grand escape, it was a frustrating note to end on. It seemed to imply that season 3 would double down on her misery as she remained in Gilead and tried to free her daughter. But this trailer indicates that the show has much bigger plans in store.

"If I'm going to change things, I'm going to need allies," June says. "Allies with power." She finds those allies in the form of Nick (Max Minghella), Mrs. Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski), and Bradley Whitford's character, a mysterious Commander we briefly met last season. And instead of leaning on punishment, the trailer is full of hope and empowerment – two things that aren't often found in Gilead. June seems to be shifting into a commander herself, infiltrating the ranks of the regime and making moves on the chess board instead of being victimized on the sidelines. It's the kind of action that just might make her decision to stay behind worth it in the end.

Here's the show's official synopsis:

Adapted from the classic novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly the United States. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalism in its militarized 'return to traditional values'. 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 the world. In this terrifying society, Offred must navigate 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.

Season 3 of The Handmaid's Tale begins on Hulu starting on June 5, 2019.