In late April, Hulu released the first three episodes of its new show, "The Handmaid's Tale" — and viewers are losing their minds over this captivating series.
The streaming service took Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel of the same name and turned it into an instant television success ("The Handmaid's Tale" has already been renewed for a second season).
Starring Elisabeth Moss and Alexis Bledel, the show introduces viewers to the world of Gilead: a near-future version of the United States where religious fundamentalism spearheads a police state and women are sent off to work in nuclear wastelands, as servants, or as "handmaids."
If you watch the show, you already know that the "handmaids" are fertile, red cloak-wearing women who are assigned to powerful men with barren wives and forced to have sex with them in the hopes of producing offspring.
But even the most keen-eyed binge watchers sometimes overlook subtle details. Here are 20 mind-blowing facts you might not know about "The Handmaid's Tale."
The handmaids' red cloaks allude to Mary Magdalene, a remorseful sinner in the Bible...
..and the blue dresses that the barren wives wear represent the Virgin Mary.
I see what you did there.
Atwood — the author of the dystopian novel — actually makes an appearance in the pilot episode.
See that grumpy-looking blur behind Elisabeth Moss? That's Margaret Atwood.
"We wanted her to cameo in the first episode, and we knew she'd play an Aunt — that's the only thing that made sense for her to play — and in that scene, I'm supposed to be slapped by an Aunt, and so we were like, 'Oh, how about Margaret Atwood?!'" Moss told GQ.
Atwood wrote the entire book on a typewriter.
For the most part, showrunners aligned themselves with Atwood's thought process, but something tells me that the scripts weren't typed up on an old-school typewriter.
And the name "Offred" literally means "Of Fred."
So the show's titular "Handmaid" Offred belongs to Fred, aka The Commander.
In the original novel, Serena Joy is much older than Offred.
Atwood never explicitly states Serena Joy's age in the book, but The Commander's wife is described as having arthritis and uses a cane.
However, the showrunner Bruce Miller decided to make them the same age for the show so that Serena and Offred would be in direct competition (34-year-old actress Yvonne Strahovski plays Serena Joy in the Hulu version).
All of the main characters are white in the book.
In the novel, POC have been "resettled" to other parts of the country, but the TV version of "The Handmaid's Tale" has a more diverse cast of characters — including Offred's friend, Moira (played by Samira Wiley of "Orange Is The New Black") and Offred's husband, Luke.
Ofglen has a much larger role in the show than in the book.
In the television series, Alexis Bledel of "Gilmore Girls" plays Offred's friend, Ofglen — but the rebellious Ofglen is *definitely* no Rory Gilmore.
The book doesn't reveal may details about her, but the show makes Ofglen one of the most controversial women in the series. Audiences learn that Ofglen is gay — something that is not OK in this nightmarish, ultra-conservative society — and she has a wife and son who managed to escape to Canada.
(One of Ofglen's female lovers, however, is not so lucky. She is hanged in episode three).
Janine doesn't actually lose her eye in the book.
But her right eye is taken right away in episode one.
In the show, the handmaids have red GPS trackers attached to their ears.
See that little guy on Offred's ear? That's a GPS tracker that the government uses to watch fertile women and prevent them from escaping.
The red tags basically indicate that a person is a handmaid and needs to be watched closely.
Reed Morano directed the first three episodes — but before "The Handmaid's Tale," Morano was a cinematographer on Beyoncé's Lemonade.
You can thank her for "Sandcastles."
Atwood doesn't necessarily consider her book a work of fiction.
"Everything I wrote in that book was happening at that time, or had already happened," she insisted.
And in this era of political uncertainty, that's perhaps the creepiest "The Handmaid's Tale" fact of all.
Recommended
30 Incredible Eyeshadow Palettes That Cost $15 Or Less
10 Hair Masks That Will Moisturize And Restore Dry, Dull Locks
28 Times Chrissy Metz Refused To Wear Basic Black
We Tried 7 Top-Rated Back Smoothing Bras — Here's The Winner
