Praise be, Margaret Atwood is working on the sequel to the Handmaid’s Tale

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Update: Stream The Handmaid’s Tale S1-4 first on Showmax

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Other than the sad news of Stan Lee’s passing and perhaps the small mishap of opening the door to Lena Dunham’s “tragic” life in her most recent profile, the month of November has been kind to us movie and TV obsessed fans.

Sometime in mid-November, HBO teased a #ForTheThrone trailer, while also announcing the release date of the finale season of Game of Thrones, and April 2019 it is. And if you think I’ll waste my precious time binge-watching on all the seven seasons that are currently streaming on Showmax, then you are absolutely right.

And just this past weekend, Disney and the immortal voice of James Earl Jones blessed us all with the first teaser trailer of the much anticipated live-action Lion King remake (but film purists insist in reminding us that it’s actually CGI, not live action, let us live a little, John). Summer 2019, here, you can have my lunch money.

To wrap it all up in a nice little bow, Margaret Atwood, the acclaimed author of The Handmaid’s Tale (upon which the Emmy winning series of the same name is based) revealed yesterday to her 1.93 million followers on Twitter that she is writing a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale…dramatic pause…and it will be released in September 2019.

Yes indeed to those who asked: I’m writing a sequel to The #HandmaidsTale. #TheTestaments is set 15 years after Offred’s final scene and is narrated by three female characters. It will be published in Sept 2019. More details: https://t.co/e1umh5FwpX pic.twitter.com/pePp0zpuif

— Margaret E. Atwood (@MargaretAtwood) November 28, 2018

Ladies and gentlemen, this right here is a tweet to be immortalised somewhere in the history books.

The Testament, as the sequel is called, is set 15 years after Offred’s last scene in the first novel and is told from the perspective of three female characters. According to Atwood, The Testament will answer almost all the questions she’s been asked about the Gilead and its inner workings. And apparently, it’s based on the world we are living in!

I can’t wait to be “broken anew” and mesmerised by the stories in this new book, and especially the new phrases that it will unleash upon us all. My personal favourite, of course, from The Handmaid’s Tale has always been “Praise be” because I get to throw it anywhere to anyone, and then for a moment relish their confusion.

Hear me out before you judge me, anyone who’s not watching The Handmaid’s Tale deserves as much punishment as they can get. And if you thought Season 1 was brutal, wait until you watch June’s defiant spirit broken into pieces until she’s no more than a woman “hiding within herself” and running away from her guilt and the pain she has caused.

The second season of The Handmaid’s Tale will teach you, slowly, painfully and harrowingly that hope is a tragedy. Oh, yes, this will shake you.

If you had planned to watch less TV in 2019, imma need you to strike that off your New Year resolutions and probably stick to the usual remotely achievable things like signing up for pilates classes or giving up social media because “we really want to be in touch with our existence and the universe.” Praise be to 2019, we shall march, and TV shows and movies we shall watch.

The Handmaid’s Tale S1 and S2 are streaming on Showmax.

Start watching now »