Madeline Brewer Dishes On Janine's Fate In 'Handmaid’s Tale' Season 5

Actress Madeline Brewer has played Janine for four seasons of Hulu's dystopian "Handmaid’s Tale" series now.

The handmaid lost her eye, had a baby, escaped Gilead, and was recaptured during that time. It remains to be seen if Brewer will survive season 5, which she described as "wild" in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.

In a recent interview, Brewer admitted that Janine has been in plenty of life or death situations before, and things won't get any easier in season 5, now that she has been recaptured by Gilead.

Brewer described Janine as a “cat with nine lives” and said that she’s “used up several of them already.” She teased, “I'm going to just say this season is no exception to that.”

She also added that fans will get to see “a side of Janine this season that we haven't seen before.”

When asked to describe the new season, Janine told EW that “the word wild is in my brain.”

“It’s wild,” she teased. “It’s a little wild.” She then added, “I truly don't know how to describe it... I mean, we're so much out of Gilead. And everyone is experiencing things that they have not yet experienced. Everyone's going through a transformative period.”

Showrunner Bruce Miller had previously told EW that the series will enter into a bit of a Sophie’s Choice in that “You're moving on with someone who's made these terrible choices. And unlike a movie version, we know what her choices were; we're in her pain and her trauma. So that's really interesting.”

He added, “The story moving forward is about the long fight, and how do you keep up energy, enthusiasm, sanity, all of those things, while you're trying to fight for something that you may never see the end of, or you may never see the good from it?”

In a previous interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Bruce Miller broke down the season 4 finale, where Commander Lawrence authorized the release of almost two dozen women in exchange for Fred Waterford to return to Gilead. However, Nick leads Waterford to June, where she and other former handmaids take turns beating him to death.

The series ends there, so the aftermath of Fred’s death is not yet shown on screen. However, Miller said that Gilead “wanted Fred gone.”

“They don't care if Fred's back; they want him to stop talking,” he explained. “So as long as Fred is not talking and that he's been excised from the timeline, they're happy with that.” He added, “I mean, it seems like they wanted him gone, and he's gone. If Lawrence gained a little goodwill with the Americans by doing it, awesome. That's an open line of communication that they can have.”

However, it seems likely that this isn’t the last fans have seen have Fred, played by Joe Fiennes.

Miller revealed, “I think we'll see Fred again. I mean, I would die if I didn't see Joe [Fiennes] again. He's the most lovely man, a generous actor, and such a professional. He is the nicest man stuck playing the most horrible person.”

“I mean, he has such affection for the group,” Miller added. “So I think it's been bittersweet, but I do have to say, on a flashback show, it cushions that goodbye a lot.”

It seems likely that fans will see Fred again, most likely in a flashback, when “Handmaid’s Tale” returns to Hulu. No release date has yet been announced, but fans are hoping that it releases sometime in 2023.