The Handmaid's Tale season two

Back in January, The Handmaid's Tale won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series. The win barely registered in Culture Whisper towers – we already trusted that the show was going to be given the award, given that it was so clearly the best TV show of 2017.

Now we've finally got a reason to be excited again – a mysterious new season will shortly be upon us. Sooner than we could have dreamed. The Handmaid's Tale season 2 will air on Sunday night at 9pm, Monday 20 May. Get ready.

Set in a dystopian future born on the back of female repression, the ten-part series tapped into the rising international concern for the role of women in a age of Trump and renewed misogyny.

What will happen in season two of The Handmaid's Tale a complete mystery (to those who have resisted reading the American reviews). Whilst season one was based on Canadian author Margaret Atwood's novel by the same name, but Atwood never wrote a sequel. And so it is with some trepidation that we await what will become of our protagonist Offred.

Elisabeth Moss is set to be rejoined by Joseph Fiennes as Fred Waterford and Alexis Bledel (of Gilmore Girl fame). In the teaser-trailer we got a spine-tingling choral version of Buffalo Springfield's Stop Children Offred is seen with a leather gag around her face, pitiful looking masses marching across baron fields, the slow swing of a noose blowing in the wind.

But the first full trailer gives us Elizabeth Moss's voice-over listing a series of instructions: 'be a good girl, spread your legs. Seriously, what the actual... ?' Meanwhile the notorious red dress burns. It looks like rebellion to us.

Atwood is said to be heavily involved in season two – although there's no news yet as to whether she'll have another cameo – and Reed Morano, the 2017 Emmy winner, will also be returning as director for the thirteen episodes of the show.

Season two is said to explore some of the 'unanswered questions' from the book – especially those raised in response to the history recorded by Professor Pieixoto in the epilogue written in 2195. So, not only does season two promise some extraordinary TV, it's going to offer more information about the world of Gilead to fans of the book and author.

No wonder The Handmaid's Tale season two is already being touted as one of the biggest shows of 2018.