Another day, another brilliant piece of The Handmaid’s Tale casting news. Joining leads Elisabeth Moss and Samira Wiley, Yvonne Strahovski will be making her way to Gilead for Hulu’s adaptation of the dystopian Margaret Atwood novel that warns of how misogyny and the patriarchy will destroy the world, a message all too relevant in today’s election climate. Strahovski is set to star as Serena Joy, the wife of Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) and the head of his household’s staff. A former televangelist, Serena’s ideology is aligned with her husband’s, and she fought for the establishment of the oppressive and violent state of Gilead.
Most recently, Strahovski starred in the ABC miniseries The Astronaut Wives Club, but she’s best known for her regular role in the seventh and eighth seasons of Dexter and her leading role on NBC’s Chuck. On both, she kicked men’s asses (and on Dexter, she killed them). She’ll next be seen in Marc Forster’s psychological thriller All I See Is You, in which Blake Lively plays a blind woman who regains her sight and starts to see her marriage to her husband (Jason Clarke) in a new light. Strahovski plays Blake Lively’s best friend, a role we wouldn’t wish upon our worst enemies.
The Handmaid’s Tale will consist of 10 episodes and is scheduled to enter production in Toronto this fall. It is slated to premiere on Hulu in 2017. Netflix has its own Margaret Atwood adaptation in the works that’s currently filming in Ontario and stars Anna Paquin. No one could have predicted this streaming-service-feminist-literature-adaptation war.
[via Deadline]