Offred is staying put at Hulu and Mindy Kaling is set to return. The streamer has renewed “The Handmaid’s Tale” for a third season and given a series order to Kaling’s latest project, an anthology adaptation of “Four Weddings and Funeral.”
The first two episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale’s” sophomore run debuted last week. As The Hollywood Reporter explains, Hulu doesn’t release viewership data, but the VOD service did reveal that the show’s Season 2 premiere “doubled its audience” compared to Season 1.
An adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale” is set in a totalitarian society ruled by a fundamentalist regime that has stripped women of their reproductive and economic rights. Elisabeth Moss stars as Offred.
The series made history at this year’s Emmys when it was named best drama — it’s the first streamer to take home the honor. “The Handmaid’s Tale” won a total of eight trophies that night, including ones for Moss’ acting and Reed Morano’s directing.
Given the “The Handmaid’s Tale” popularity with audiences and critics, the renewal comes as no surprise.
For viewers looking for lighter fare — or a pick-me-up after “The Handmaid’s Tale” — Kaling’s got you covered. The “Mindy Project” creator and star is taking her love of romantic comedies to the next level with her take on 1994’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”
Co-written by Kaling, the series, titled “Four Weddings,” “follows a group of friends as their lives intersect through five events,” according to THR. No word on whether Kaling will have an on-screen role. She’s among the project’s executive producers.
In her 2011 book “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)” Kaling wrote that “the genre has been so degraded in the past 20 years that saying you like romantic comedies is essentially an admission of mild stupidity.” She explained, “I simply regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world created therein has different rules than my regular human world.”
“The Mindy Project” concluded its sixth and final season in 2017. The series’ first three seasons aired on Fox. Hulu picked up the comedy after Fox cancelled it.
Kaling co-created and exec produces “Champions,” currently in its first season on NBC. She has a recurring role on the comedy about a gay teen who moves from Cleveland to New York City to attend a performing arts school while living with the dad he never knew.
You can catch Kaling in theaters in Ava DuVernay’s fantasy adventure “A Wrinkle in Time.” She’s part of the ensemble for heist comedy “Ocean’s 8,” set to bow June 8.
