Hulu’s 83% Rotten Tomatoes sci-fi series is dominating Netflix charts globally just days after arriving on the streaming giant, and its momentum shows no signs of slowing down. Its spin-off, which recently ended its first season with a game-changing finale, has partly contributed to the renewed success, alongside the show’s consistently powerful episodes. Running for six seasons from April 26, 2017, to May 27, 2025, the series was created by Bruce Miller, whose work on the show earned Emmy wins in 2017 for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.
As the first streaming series ever to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, The Handmaid’s Tale has enjoyed remarkable success since its debut. Based on Margaret Atwood’s bestselling novel, the dystopian drama is set in Gilead, a totalitarian society established in what was once part of the United States. Gilead is ruled by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as state property, forcing fertile women, known as “Handmaids,” into child-bearing servitude in a desperate attempt to repopulate a devastated world.
The Handmaid’s Tale was added to Netflix’s catalog in select regions in early May and quickly captured the attention of viewers worldwide. This week alone, the series has surged on the platform’s charts, ranking among the Top 10 most-watched shows in international territories, including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, and Mexico, among others. That makes it the perfect binge-watch heading into the weekend, especially since its spin-off, The Testaments, just concluded its first season and is already expected to return for Season 2.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
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🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
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01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
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02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
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03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
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04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
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05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
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06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
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07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
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08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
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Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
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Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
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You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
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You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
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You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
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You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
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You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
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‘The Testaments’ Is a Gripping Spin-Off of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Also created by Miller, The Handmaid’s Tale spin-off premiered on April 8, 2026, with its Season 1 finale airing on May 27. The Testaments follows Agnes (Chase Infiniti), a young woman raised in upper-class Gilead society and educated at a prestigious girls’ school overseen by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), all in preparation for a prosperous marriage. But then there’s Daisy (Lucy Halliday) from the independent city of Toronto, whom Aunt Lydia orders Agnes to mentor, not knowing she’s a spy.
Agnes is the daughter of June (Elisabeth Moss), the central protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale, who successfully escaped Gilead but was tragically separated from her first child. In The Testaments‘ finale, titled “Secateurs,” mother and daughter are still not reunited, but Agnes finally learns the truth about her birth mother after Daisy reveals that Agnes’ birth name is actually Hannah.
The Handmaid’s Tale streams on Netflix.
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Release Date
2017 – 2025-00-00
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Network
Hulu
Showrunner
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Bruce Miller
Directors
Mike Barker, Kari Skogland, Daina Reid, Reed Morano, Floria Sigismondi, Jeremy Podeswa, Kate Dennis, Richard Shepard, Amma Asante, Christina Choe, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Bradley Whitford, Dearbhla Walsh, Liz Garbus
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Writers
Kira Snyder, Eric Tuchman, Yahlin Chang, John Herrera, Jacey Heldrich, Dorothy Fortenberry, Marissa Jo Cerar, Lynn Renee Maxcy
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