The second season of “The Handmaid’s Tale” is expanding into new worlds and with that development comes new blood, in the form of actress Sydney Sweeney, Variety has learned exclusively.
Hulu tells Variety Sweeney will recur in the guest starring role of 15-year-old Eden when the series returns in the spring of 2018. Eden is described as “pious and obedient,” someone who represents the next wave of true believers in Gilead. While she has dreams of one day becoming a Commander’s wife, her blind faith in this new world order makes her both naïve and dangerous to those around her. Sweeney will make her first appearance in the fifth episode of the second season.
“In the first season we took things that were mentioned in the book and turned them into whole episodes,” showrunner Bruce Miller says. “The second season, really a lot of the stuff we’re doing is still an extrapolation of that world — the colonies, what life is like for refugees and what happens if a handmaid tries to run away. All of those things from Margaret Atwood’s world are still very much a part of our world.”
The 13 episodes of Season 2 are “shaped by Offred’s pregnancy and her ongoing fight to free her future child from the dystopian horrors of Gilead,” according to the show’s official second-season description.
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Patrick Lewis/Starpix/REX/Shutterstock
Season two of The Handmaid’s Tale is starting to come into clearer focus.
The Emmy-winning drama series has enlisted Clea DuVall for a key role in its forthcoming second season.
Duvall will guest star in season two as Sylvia, Emily’s (Alexis Bledel) loving wife and co-parent to their young son. As the Gilead regime takes control of America, the family attempts to escape to Canada, only to confront more restrictions and obstacles.
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