Season 4 of 'The Handmaid's Tale' reflects the 'journey' ahead of the US after the Trump administration, the show's executive producer says

• The 2020 presidential election helped shape the fourth season of Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale."
• The new episodes reflect the "journey" ahead of the US following Donald Trump's presidency.
• "June's journey is very much like that," Warren Littlefield, an executive producer, told Insider.

Warning: This article contains spoilers about the first three seasons of "The Handmaid's Tale."

The first season of "The Handmaid's Tale" premiered on Hulu in 2017, the first year of Donald Trump's presidency.

Many viewers witnessed their deepest fears about America's political future realized in Gilead, a religious totalitarian regime that ousts the US government.

Critics called the TV series the "dystopian story of our time," a "deafening klaxon," and the "most unintentionally relevant show ever." Protestors donned the Handmaids' signature red-cloaks and white bonnets at demonstrations for women's reproductive rights and movements like Times Up and #MeToo in the years following the premiere.

"We were ushered in as part of the resistance to the Trump administration when we came on the air. We saw what resistance and revolting is about," Warren Littlefield, an executive producer on the show, recently told Insider.

Four seasons later, the dystopian drama, based on Canadian author Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel, is returning to the streaming platform in a post-Trump era - a political shift that guided the show's trajectory.

The forthcoming season was created in the midst of the 2020 presidential election

Season four of "The Handmaid's Tale" began filming in March 2020, anticipating a release date that lined up with last year's presidential election. However, production was delayed for six months due to the pandemic, postponing the premiere to April 2021.

Littlefield recalled talking "a lot" about how the show initially "would be in production in an election year," but "of course, everything got thrown off with the six-month hiatus."

Taking a note from Atwood - who examined real-life events from the Salem Witch Trials to Ronald Reagan's presidency and crafted them into a novel - Littlefield said the "Handmaid's Tale" writers took "historical fact" and morphed it into "dystopian fiction" while creating the show's fourth season.

"Now we find ourselves in a world, our real world, that no longer has Gilead in the White House and no longer has Gilead in the Justice Department, and yet each and every day, we're aware of how great the journey [is] that's still in front of us: a journey of freedom, a journey of justice, a journey of equality," he said.

"So, do we reflect that in our show? We absolutely do," Littlefield continued. "June's journey is very much like that."

At a Television Critics Association panel in February, series creator and showrunner Bruce Miller told The Hollywood Reporter that "The Handmaid's Tale" writers and executive producers approached the fourth season with the "post-Trump era" in mind.

"We're not trying to rip stuff from the headlines and put them on television. We are, in fact, just trying to follow our characters through what is a very historical time in Gilead. And, unfortunately, we're going through a historical time [in America] as well," he told THR.

Season 4 picks up on June Osborne's treacherous journey through Gilead

On the season three finale, titled "Mayday," June Osborne (played by Elisabeth Moss, who was also a director and executive producer this season), successfully smuggles over 100 children out of Gilead and into Canada.

Despite the cataclysmic blow to Gilead, a military powerhouse determined to offset its waning population, victory is still far away. In fact, June is in more danger than ever, as she decides to remain in Gilead to search for her daughter, Hannah.

"We know that those steps forward, that leap forward, would not be without tremendous cost and conflict, and yet we wanted to do that," Littlefield told Insider. "We go to places we've never been before."

"The Handmaid's Tale," which has expanded far beyond Atwood's novel, has already been renewed for a fifth season. According to Littlefield, Miller is still toying with "how far" to take the Emmy-winning show.

"He's looking forward to exploring what that journey is and how much longer to go on it. I think we all feel after this season that we don't feel we're limping," he said. "We feel pretty triumphant about what we were able to accomplish dramatically this season."

The first three episodes of season four become available to stream on Hulu on Wednesday, April 28.