‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: Alexis Bledel Exiting Show Before Season 5 Premieres

In a statement to Variety, Alexis Bledel announced that she will be leaving 'The Handmaid's Tale' ahead of its fifth season.

by Eryn Murphy

Published on May 28, 2022

2 min read

Alexis Bledel is leaving ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Bledel plays Emily, a Handmaid who escapes Gilead. For her work as Emily, Bledel won Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series at the 2017 Emmy Awards.

She was also nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the 2018 Emmy Awards and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series at the 2020 Emmy Awards and 2021 Emmy Awards.

On May 27, Bledel shared an exclusive statement with Variety announcing her decision to leave The Handmaid’s Tale.

“After much thought, I felt I had to step away from ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ at this time. I am forever grateful to Bruce Miller for writing such truthful and resonant scenes for Emily, and to Hulu, MGM, the cast and crew for their support,” Bledel said in the statement.

Fans of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ reacted to Alexis Bledel’s decision

After Bledel announced her plan to leave The Handmaid’s Tale, fans of the Hulu series shared their reactions on social media.

“I hope Alexis is okay and moving in to better things. I hope she isn’t leaving because something bad happened,” a Reddit user wrote. “I will miss the character Emily a lot. She was my favorite. I was hoping we’d get to see more of her in season 5.”

“I just saw this! I’m heartbroken because I love Emily! Alexis Bledel truly made the character her own, and I’m so glad we got her for as long as we did. I do hope they give her a nice ending…,” one fan wrote on Reddit.

Another fan wrote on Reddit, “I think Emily has been such an important character but I feel like she was very underutilized in s4. Sometimes that unfortunately happens. I’m thankful to her incredible contributions to the show and hope to see her do some more incredible stuff in the future.”

Season 5 of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is currently filming

Elisabeth Moss stars as June Osborne in The Handmaid’s Tale, and she is also a producer and director on the show. In a recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Moss revealed some details about season 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale.

According to Moss, the show’s upcoming season is “halfway through” filming.

“It’s going really well, we’re halfway through,” Moss said on The Drew Barrymore Show. “I will say that it’s a very big season. We’ve been on location a lot. We’ve been in studio very little, which for us means that it’s very big. And we’re just constantly on the road, a lot of locations.”

The first four episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale are available to stream on Hulu.