NEW YORK _ Hulu is going back to Gilead.
Ahead of its upfront presentation Wednesday in Manhattan, the streaming service announced the drama "The Handmaid's Tale," which premiered last week, would return for a second season in 2018.
The news hardly came as a surprise. Like Netflix and other video-on-demand services, Hulu does not release ratings information, but "The Handmaid's Tale" has been a critical hit, earning mostly glowing reviews and social media buzz. According to Hulu, the premiere was been watched by more viewers than any other series premiere.
"The response we've seen to 'The Handmaid's Tale' in just one week since its premiere has been absolutely incredible," said Craig Erwich, head of original content, in a statement. "'The Handmaid's Tale' is exactly the type of gripping and thought-provoking storytelling we want to bring to viewers."
For Hulu, which has invested heavily in original content over the last two years but hasn't gotten as much attention as its flashy competitors Netflix and Amazon, "The Handmaid's Tale" has the makings of a breakout success on the order of "House of Cards" or "Transparent."
Starring Elisabeth Moss and based on Margaret Atwood's novel, the series is set in a dystopian future in which a theocratic regime has taken over the United States, now known as the Republic of Gilead, and stripped women of their rights.
Hulu has other projects in the pipeline, including an adaptation of "The Looming Tower," Lawrence's Wright's Pulitzer Prize-winning history of al-Qaida.
