[Contains heavily hinted spoilers for OITNB Season 4]
After a certain thing of which we shall not speak happened to a certain character on a certain show, Samira Wiley — who may or may not have played that character on that show, and may or may not have been most people’s favorite performer on that show, and thus may or may not have led most people who watched that show to be emotionally wrecked when the thing that may or may not have happened happened — looks to be lining up some exciting follow-ups. It was recently announced that she was coming on to You’re the Worst, and she’ll be balancing her appearance on that contemporary romantic comedy with some pretty unromantic dystopian futurism: TVLine reports that she’s joining Hulu’s anticipated TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which was already set to star Elisabeth Moss, and which was given a 10-episode order.
Wiley will be playing Moira, the college best friend of Elisabeth Moss’ character, Offred (who’s the titular handmaid — though Moira also becomes a handmaid, or indentured bearer of children in a largely infertile society, not long after Offred). In the novel, Moira is a lesbian, and Gilead, the dictatorship in which the characters live, isn’t exactly the most accepting culture. Somewhat more resistant than Offred, Moira actually attempts to escape the life planned for her by the tyrannical Republic of Gilead. So get ready to see Wiley play… another oppressed character with a potentially depressing arc… really well.
Apart from Moss and Wiley, Max Mingella and The Leftovers’ Ann Dowd (who’s likewise one of most impressive talents from the series she’s coming from) have also joined the cast. The Hollywood Reporter says that Wiley’s coming on as a series regular, so let’s hope writer/executive producer Bruce Miller has actually made Moira a substantial role.