The Handmaid's Tale TV Series vs the Book: Key Differences
Season 1 of the Hulu series follows the novel closely. After that, the show goes its own way and runs for six seasons, while the book is a single, much shorter story that ends on an open question.
The main differences are that the show gives the heroine a name and a fight to win, and leaves out the novel's Historical Notes.
| Book / Series | |
|---|---|
| Book | Margaret Atwood, 1985, about 300 pages |
| Series | Created by Bruce Miller, Hulu |
| Run | April 2017 to May 2025, six seasons |
| Heroine | Offred (book) / June Osborne, played by Elisabeth Moss (series) |
| Award | Outstanding Drama Series Emmy in 2017, first for a streaming service |
| Earlier film | 1990, directed by Volker Schlondorff |
What does season 1 keep?
The first season covers the events of the book: the Handmaid's life in the Waterford house, the Ceremony, Ofglen, the Commander's secret meetings with Offred, and her relationship with Nick. It also keeps the flashbacks to the time before Gilead and to the Red Center.
Season 1 ends almost exactly where the novel ends, with the heroine led away to a van. Everything after that is original to the series.
↑ Back to the topDoes Offred have a real name in the book?
No. In the novel her own name is never given. The name June comes from a list of names the trainee Handmaids whisper at night, in which June is the only one not accounted for, so readers inferred it.
The show states it openly: she is June Osborne, and the series spends most of its time on her life outside the Waterford house.
↑ Back to the topHow do later seasons differ?
From season 2, the show tells stories the book never does. June becomes an active resistance fighter, rather than the mostly watchful narrator of the novel. She faces the consequences of her actions and tries to protect her children, and the story moves beyond Gilead into Canada.
Commander Fred Waterford, played by Joseph Fiennes, is a main character for four seasons and is killed in the fifth. The series also expands characters who are small in the book, including Luke, Moira, Serena Joy and Aunt Lydia, and invents others.
↑ Back to the topHow does the series end?
The sixth and final season premiered on 8 April 2025. Its finale shows a successful uprising in Boston and June reunited with her younger daughter, Nichole, while she keeps looking for her elder daughter, Hannah.
That is much more of an answer than the novel offers, which leaves its heroine in the van. The series also leaves out the novel's epilogue, so the viewer never sees the 2195 symposium.
↑ Back to the topWas there an earlier film?
Yes. A 1990 film directed by Volker Schlondorff, with a script by Harold Pinter, starred Natasha Richardson as Offred. It tells the story of the novel in a single, shorter film.
↑ Back to the topMore about The Handmaid’s Tale
This guide covers the novel only. The TV series and the 1990 film differ in places.