How Taylor Swift’s ‘Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version)’ Ended Up in <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i>
The newest episode of The Handmaid’s Tale contains many shocking twists and surprises, but one we definitely didn’t see coming was a Reputation (Taylor’s Version) Easter egg: “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version)” makes its official debut in one of the opening scenes. The menacing pop song plays as June (Elisabeth Moss) leads the secret resistance group Mayday to attack the commanders of Gilead.
Moss, who stars in and executive produces The Handmaid’s Tale, explained the track’s placement in a statement to Billboard. “I’ve been wanting to use a Taylor song for many years on the show and we finally found the perfect spot for a track from her, and I’m so glad we waited because there could not be a more perfect song for a more perfect moment,” she said.
“Taylor has been such an inspiration to me personally. As a Swiftie myself, and I think I can speak for [co-star] Yvonne [Strahovski] and our entire cast as well, who are all Swifties, it’s such an honor to be able to use her music in the final episodes of our show.”
Moss explained that she was hoping to use a Swift song in the last two episodes of the Hulu series, which is adapted from Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name. She and the team really wanted to find a song for the opening of season 6, episode 9, which released today. She credits the show’s editor, Wendy Hallam Martin, “for picking this track for this moment!”
Hallam Martin also explained the decision to Billboard:
“In trying many songs for this specific moment in our series and knowing how much Lizzie wanted a strong female voice and message, Taylor was really the artist that delivered both lyrically and tonally. Our badass main character June in this scene, really was saying, ‘Look what you made me do’ and the song couldn’t have been more on-point. A perfect pairing. When I laid the song up against the scene, it just landed perfectly thematically, rhythmically and magically hit all the edit points which sometimes happens if it’s meant to be. I shared it with Lizzie and we both knew immediately that this was the one!”
This is just our latest glimpse of Swift’s re-recording of her 2017 album. Fans are eagerly awaiting when Swift might announce the new version’s release date. While the singer remains mum on such details, she did share what it was like to revisit her Reputation era, on stage during tour and in the studio.
“It’s a goth-punk moment of female rage at being gaslit by an entire social structure,” she told Time magazine in her 2023 Person of the Year interview. (If you think about it, that description also applies to this season of The Handmaid’s Tale.) “I think a lot of people see it and they’re just like, Sick snakes and strobe lights.”
She even likened re-recording Reputation to a fantastical experience. “I’m collecting horcruxes,” Swift said. “I’m collecting infinity stones. Gandalf’s voice is in my head every time I put out a new one. For me, it is a movie now.”
The Handmaid’s Tale concludes with its series finale next Tuesday.
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