‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: Is Max Minghella in Season 4?
In The Handmaid’s Tale, Max Minghella plays Nick Blaine, a driver who later becomes a Commander. While seemingly part of the Gilead regime, Nick is shown to not be a true believer of Gilead, and throughout the show, he and June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) fall in love.
Season 4 of The Handmaid’s Tale will premiere on Hulu on April 28. Will Minghella appear in Season 4 as Nick?
Max Minghella did not appear in much of Season 3 of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Nick is one of the main characters in The Handmaid’s Tale. Despite this, Nick did not appear in Season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale after the sixth episode. After Season 3 Episode 6, Nick is stationed in Chicago and is not seen or heard from again.
In a 2019 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, showrunner Bruce Miller explained why Nick’s scenes in Chicago were cut from the third season.
“We just don’t have the real estate in the show,” Miller said. “We would love to delve into more stories. We had all sorts of other stuff with Nick… Max is a wonderful actor. He has scenes that we filmed that we weren’t able to use, and it’s heartbreaking.”
While it was not planned to cut Nick’s scenes, Miller felt the choice worked for the season’s characterization of June.
“When Nick’s gone, he’s truly gone for June, because it’s not like she can look on the Internet or call,” he said. “It’s like he was plucked off the face of the earth, and in the novel that was such a strong feeling, that he kind of disappeared.”
Max Minghella will appear in Season 4 of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
On Feb. 25, Hulu released a trailer for Season 4 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Based on the trailer, the show will be different compared to past seasons. After helping children escape Gilead, June is on the run, and it seems like she will not go back to being a Handmaid.
Minghella’s character Nick is also shown at multiple points during the trailer. The first glimpse of Nick in the trailer shows the character looking worried while standing on a bridge.
Nick is then seen sitting in a dimly-lit room with Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford). Presumably talking about June, Commander Lawrence tells Nick that he “can’t save her.”
While Nick does not speak, this scene between Commander Lawrence and Nick was previously shown in the first teaser for Season 4 that was released in 2020, confirming Nick will be present in the new season.
At the end of the trailer, Nick and June kiss, a sign that their star-crossed-lovers romance is still going strong in Season 4 of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Nick Blaine is a commander in the Hulu show
In the first two seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale, Nick is a driver for the powerful Waterford family. He is promoted to a Commander in the third season and deployed to Chicago.
June also discovers that Nick was apparently instrumental in the rise of Gilead. Speaking with Harper’s Bazaar, Miller explained that this revelation changed June.
“First of all it’s like, ‘God, this guy that I actually allowed myself to be intimate with and really opened myself up to is not what he appears to be,'” Miller said. “If you look at it from a slightly different direction, June is learning that even a nice guy could’ve done horrible things. And that gives her permission to be a nice person who does horrible things.”
Based on the Season 4 trailer for The Handmaid’s Tale, June clearly reaches a point of forgiveness when it comes to Nick’s past. While it is unclear how many episodes Minghella will appear in, his character will be featured in the upcoming season.
