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The Handmaid's Tale: why season five is going to be delayed

Have you been enjoying the dystopian drama? 

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Emmy Griffiths
TV & Film Editor
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The Handmaid’s Tale finale airs in the UK on Sunday night - and will leave fans inevitably wanting more from June, Serena Joy and Moira. The hit show follows June and her friends as they deal with the aftermath of living in Gilead, a horrifying totalitarian country governed by religious zealots. So when will it be back for season five?

MORE: The Handmaid's Tale: the one huge difference between the show and books

Unfortunately, it sounds like upcoming episodes will be a while off. Chatting in a recent Q&A, the showrunner Bruce Miller explained: “The writer’s room is starting in a week or two.

WATCH: Have you been watching season four?

"Honestly, a lot of the cast have projects that were unmoored because of Covid for a million reasons so even though our actors are extraordinarily flexible to fit in the work on our show, everybody has things they do. 

“We want to encourage people to do things outside of the show, that’s their work and their art, they bring good stuff back but people have lined up all these jobs and now a lot of those jobs moved to after.

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The season finale airs on Sunday in the UK

"So we’re going to have to see how all that shakes out, we want people to fulfil the obligations they had to other projects but we want to fulfil the obligation we have to the audience, so we’re starting writing as quickly as we can while we still figure all that stuff out.” 

MORE: The Handmaid's Tale star Elisabeth Moss makes major revelation about season four

MORE: 11 heartbreaking The Handmaid's Tale moments, ranked 

The finale of the hit show will see June as she processes the news that Fred Waterford is being allowed to go free in exchange for information after testifying against him in a gripping court case. We can’t wait to see what happens next! 

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