Warning: this article contains spoilers for the second season of The Handmaid’s Tale – and drops some pretty heavy-handed hints about what’s to come in the show’s confirmed third series, too.

The Handmaid’s Tale may be based on a single novel by Margaret Atwood, but fans of the TV show are in it for the long haul: the story of June – or, to use her Gileadean name, Offred – has gone far beyond the book’s plot for the current second season, and a third has already been commissioned.

Indeed, Hulu chief executive Randy Freer said the show could last well beyond that, telling Variety: “I hope, as success goes, there’s 10 seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale. The creative process will determine, is it a fourth season, is it five seasons? And I think that’s one of the benefits for creators in the streaming world – shows can take a natural progression, they can live for as long as they should live or they can end.”

All of this, though, means that we will have to wait a very long time before we find out June’s fate. In the book, of course, her story ends on the same intriguing cliffhanger as we saw at the end of season one: Elisabeth Moss’ character is ushered into the back of a van, with no way of knowing if she’s on her way to freedom or capture.

The Handmaid’s Tale: we just found out how June’s story will end – and it’s pretty shocking