Hulu making dynamic moves with new series, streaming rights
Praise be. Just four episodes into its 10episode run, Hulu has picked up
The Handmaid’s Tale for a second season, part of a growing original slate that includes Marvel superheroes, astronauts and CIA officials.
The prescient sci-fi drama, adapted from Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian classic, stars Mad
Men’s Elisabeth Moss as Offred, a woman who is enslaved and forced to bear children for a military commander and his infertile wife.
The ambitious series co-stars Samira Wiley, Alexis Bledel and Joseph Fiennes, and has been embraced by critics. In her review, USA TODAY’s Kelly Lawler awarded it out of four, eeeg calling it “a somber and relevant story about the lives and fears of women.”
The major news at the presentation was Hulu’s long-planned live-TV streaming service. But the network, owned jointly by media giants Walt Disney Co., Comcast, 21st Century Fox and Time Warner, also announced two new original series: Marvel’s Runaways, based on the comic-book series about six teenagers who unite against their supervillain parents, to be adapted by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage ( The O.C., Gossip Girl) and premiere on the streaming platform this winter.
Space drama The First, due in 2018. The series is created and written by House of Cards creator Beau Willimon and will chart the first human mission to Mars.
Alec Baldwin has also been cast as a guest star in Hulu original
The Looming Tower, a 10-episode drama based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 9/11 exposé by Lawrence Wright, which traces the rising threat of Osama bin Laden and al- Qaeda. Baldwin will play George Tenet, the director of Central Intelligence for the CIA, and co-stars with Jeff Daniels.
Also on tap: Future Man, a time-travel comedy starring Josh Hutcherson and produced by Seth Rogen; Castle Rock, a horror series from J.J. Abrams and Stephen King; and I Love You, Amer
ica, a talk show with comedian Sarah Silverman.
Outside of its original programming, Hulu has also acquired exclusive streaming rights to FX’s Atlanta.
Hulu will also share co-exclusive streaming rights with NBC to top-rated and NBC’s hit drama
This Is Us, for its first and upcoming seasons.