Hulu shuts down production of The Handmaid’s Tale amid the growing coronavirus pandemic

Hulu announced that The Handmaid’s Tale, currently filming its fourth season, will halt production as a result of the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday.

The series joins a long list of productions that have opted to hit pause this week after president Donald Trump declared the virus a ‘national emergency’ on Friday.

Season four of the acclaimed Hulu original was expected to mark the the directorial debut for the show’s Emmy-winning star Elisabeth Moss, according to Deadline.

The Handmaid’s Tale is produced by MGM television, which has shutdown a number of its other productions, including Fargo for cable network FX and its latest Greek mythology drama Circe for HBO Max.

Another major studio taking extreme measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is NBC Universal who put a stop to all projects currently in production on the Universal Lot.

America Ferrera, who announced in late February that she would be ending her stint on NBC’s Superstore, took to Instagram on Friday to inform fans that her goodbye to the series would be coming sooner than she had expected.  

She wrote: ‘Today is unexpectedly my last day shooting on Superstore for this season. We are shutting down production, as they are all shows on the Universal lot.’

How the shutdown will affect the conclusion of Ferrera’s story line in season five of the acclaimed comedy remains unknown.

But Ferrera expressed her hopefulness in regards to ‘coming back when things clear up’ in order to give her character Amy a proper send off.

‘I assume [this] means we’ll be coming back when things clear up to finish Amy’s story line. But I’m about to shoot my last scene … right now.’    

On Saturday, Marvel shut down production on three of its upcoming Disney Plus TV shows, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki and WandaVision.

All three of the shows were currently filming, though there is no word on when production may resume, according to Variety. 

Marvel shows that are currently in the pre-production phase will continue work remotely.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier actually shut down production earlier this week, with Loki and WandaVision following suit on Saturday.

After The Falcon and the Winter Soldier shut down production, star Sebastian Stan headed to Europe earlier this week, where he showcased his Coronavirus preparations.

There is no indication how far into production each of the shows had gotten, or how this production shut-down will affect their premiere dates.

The news comes after Disney has shut down productions of several movies including Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Other Disney productions shut down included The Last Duel, The Little Mermaid, Home Alone, Nightmare Alley, Peter Pan & Wendy and Shrunk.

Disney joins other studios such as Universal who have shut down several productions en masse in response to the Coronavirus outbreak. 

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier brings back stars Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan from the Marvel movies. 

The show is set after the events of the 2019 movie Avengers: Endgame, featuring the two title characters teaming up.

They will be joined by Emily VanCamp, who is returning as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter, a.k.a. Agent 13, and Wyatt Russell as John Walker, among others, originally slated to debut in Fall 2020.

Loki brings back Tom Hiddleston as the title character, with this story also set in the aftermath of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, slated to debut in 2021.

WandaVision features Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. Scarlet Witch and Paul Bettany as Vision, also believed to debut in 2021.

Marvel also has shows such as What If?, She-Hulk, Hawkeye and Hero Project that are in various stages of development.