'The Handmaid's Tale' nears end on Hulu, but its storytelling legacy will live on

LOS ANGELES -- With the Season 6 finale of "The Handmaid's Tale" airing on May 27 on Hulu, the run of the Emmy award-winning show is coming to an end. However, like all good stories, the legacy of the creatives and talent behind the hit drama will live on in the work they continue to do and the lessons they've learned from eight years of storytelling.

For Margaret Atwood, the legendary author behind the novel that started a cultural movement, writing "The Handmaid's Tale" was about reimagining the present and past through the lens of speculative fiction.

"I'd always wanted to write a speculative fiction book," Atwood said. "Most of them at that time were told from the point of view of men, and I thought it would be interesting to flip it and tell it from the point of view of a woman."

Despite being written nearly four decades ago, the story's impact continues to ripple through pop culture, resonating deeply with women and audiences around the world. This is due in large part to the concrete, real world influences Atwood incorporated into her writing.

"Everything in the book is based on historical fact," said Atwood. "Nothing in it hasn't happened somewhere at some point in history."

For Yahlin Chang, executive producer and co-showrunner, her journey as a storyteller began decades before the show's premiere, on the couch with her parents watching soap operas and soaking in the art of American drama. But more than anything, her love of storytelling came from books.

"I read a ton of books, and I very much felt like books were more real than real life," said Chang. "It became a dream of mine to be able to one day write, and I did everything in my power to accomplish that."

When it came to the opportunity to adapt "The Handmaid's Tale" to the screen, it's this love for books that Chang brought into her duties as an executive producer, helping lead the award-winning writer's room

"It's such a beautiful novel," said Chang. "It obviously has spoken to millions of people, women and girls especially, who encounter 'The Handmaid's Tale' in high school and then in college. The challenge was how to adapt this beautiful novel to the screen. And the way we did it was by remaining as true to Margaret's vision as possible."

Eric Tuchman, executive producer and co-showrunner, echoes this sentiment. He stresses how important it was to honor the lyrical, moving nature of the source material and lead character Offred's experience, taking heart amongst the challenge of adapting such an interior story.

"It can't all be from her point of view," said Tuchman. "We've expanded upon characters that Margaret has created. We've gone beyond the plot of the book through June's voiceover, for instance. We're still quoting the book. It's always the foundation of the series."

Indeed, bringing those pages to life required careful intention and vision, especially when it came to translating the interior world Tuchman highlights to powerful onscreen performances.

For Ann Dowd, the powerhouse actress who plays Aunt Lydia, it's the attachments she forms as an actress to the story and characters that drive her performance. The soon-to-be star of "The Testaments," a sequel to "The Handmaid's Tale," says she's driven by the character-driven questions that need answering in the eyes and minds of an eager audience.

"What does she want? What's in her way? What is she going to do to get what she wants?" said Dowd. "It's all a learning experience from the start, and it just grows in depth as the years continue. What Lydia learns over time, and therefore could teach me, is, what is love? What does it mean? Does it mean you have to crush individuals to get your message across? The answer, of course, is no."

For Yvonne Strahovski, who stars as Serena Joy Waterford, it was difficult to portray some of the gruesome scenes integral to the plot of the show when it first began. As the years went on, however, she says it became easier to compartmentalize the show's horrors and step out of them when she needed to.

"I remember feeling really awful, gross, and just couldn't wrap my head around it," said Strahovski. "There were days in the earlier years where I think it was much harder. Harder to just leave it. As the years go by, you step right in and then you step right out and you go, home."

For Bradley Whitford, who plays Commander Joseph Lawrence, keeping the importance of portraying these horrors at the forefront of his mind, no matter how gruesome, kept him going when the days on set got tough. To him, this storytelling should serve as a catalyst for more concrete activism.

"There's never been a time when this story needs to be told more. At the same time, we need to acknowledge the fact that storytelling alone will not suffice," said Whitford. "You have to put this stuff into action. Despair is a luxury that our children and the future cannot afford, and that action is the antidote to despair."

For Elisabeth Moss, who stars as June Osborne, it's the honor of being a streaming pioneer that means the most.

"We [had] the opportunity to be at the forefront of streaming and were the first show to win awards for that," said Moss. "I hope that is something that people take away from it. Our directors and our cinematographers were doing things that people weren't necessarily doing on television and certainly not streaming. And so, I hope that's something that's part of our legacy."

Through award-winning performances, cinematic direction and bold writing, "The Handmaid's Tale" helped usher in a new era of prestige streaming television. As the series wraps, its legacy, and the storytellers who shaped it, will continue to challenge, provoke, and inspire.

Watch ABC's On The Red Carpet Storytellers Spotlight interview with Margaret Atwood and the creatives and cast behind Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale" in the video player above.

The season finale of Hulu's "The Handmaids Tale" airs May 27 on Hulu.

Andres Rovira, Vanessa Czworniak Gonzales, and Luke Richards contributed to this report.

Disney is the parent company of Hulu and this station.