The Hulu adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale might be over, but the streamer doesn’t plan to loosen its grip on the famed Margaret Atwood saga. Next up will be The Testaments, an adaptation of Atwood’s Handmaid’s sequel, which was published in 2019—more than three decades after its predecessor.
The Testaments takes place more than 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale (in the books; the show’s timeline is different) and will pick back up inside the Republic of Gilead, a dystopian theocracy built on what former Handmaid’s Tale showrunner Bruce Miller called “a perversion, misreading of Old Testament laws and codes.” The story follows three women—Aunt Lydia, Agnes, and Daisy—as their lives weave together under Gilead’s iron fist.
Here’s what we know about the new series so far.
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Who is developing The Testaments?
Hulu and MGM Television scooped up the rights to Atwood’s sequel before it even hit shelves, and per The Hollywood Reporter, Miller has been hard at work on developing The Testaments for “several years.” As he did with Handmaid’s, he will lead The Testaments as showrunner.
He stepped down as showrunner for The Handmaid’s Tale ahead of its sixth and final season to focus on The Testaments, opening the door for executive producers and writers Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang to take over Handmaid’s closing season.
Who’s in the cast?
Deadline reports that Ann Dowd will reprise her Handmaid’s role as Aunt Lydia, while Chase Infiniti (Presumed Innocent) will step into the role of Agnes (June and Luke’s daughter Hannah, who was renamed in Gilead). Newcomer Lucy Halliday (Blue Jean) will play Daisy (who is really June and Nick’s daughter Nichole). Alongside them will be Rowan Blanchard (Poker Face) as Shunammite, whom Deadline reports is “a pampered teen from a prominent Gilead family whose status affords her a certain level of respect and power amongst her peers.”
According to Deadline, “the hope has been” for Handmaid’s lead actress Elisabeth Moss to reprise her role as June in The Testaments, but it is “uncertain whether that would happen.”
Other cast members announced so far include Mabel Li, Amy Seimetz, Brad Alexander, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Eva Foote, Isolde Ardies, Shechinah Mpumlwana, Birva Pandya, and Kira Guloien.
When will The Testaments start filming?
The final season of The Handmaid’s Tale is set to drop this April, and with The Testaments in active development, Deadline reports that filming is set to begin on April 7.
Will June be in The Testaments?
For now, no. Moss told The Hollywood Reporter regarding whether her character will appear in the spinoff, “You’re just going to have to watch the show. I won’t be there [on set of The Testaments], which is different as a producer. But I can’t not be hands on. I don’t know how to do it any other way. And it certainly feels hands on, given the amount of emails!”
Miller, however, said a June appearance is “a good thing to hope for. I hope she shows up there, too,” he told THR. “She’s still doing her job, still doing what she was doing in The Handmaid’s Tale. Luke and Moira are still out there somewhere, ringing the bell to get Hannah back. The beauty of having watched The Handmaid’s Tale is that you understand there’s this huge operation of people who are out there who care and who are risking themselves to get to reunite with their children. The people in The Testaments show don’t feel that. But from experiencing Handmaid’s, you know there’s this whole operation. So is June influencing The Testaments? Absolutely. She’s out there. She’s trying to get Hannah back. Do we see her? I would love to see her. I love Lizzie Moss, she’s awesome! She’s very involved behind the scenes.”
But June—and even Nick—will be referenced, Miller says. “We’ll certainly reference them, and bring it into relief a lot more than it is in the book, and earlier,” he told Variety after the Handmaid’s Tale finale.
In a recent interview, Miller spoke more about the possibility of a June appearance. “[June] is still doing what she was doing in The Handmaid’s Tale [along with] Luke and Moira—they’re still out there somewhere ringing the bell to get Hannah back,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
He continued, “The beauty of having watched Handmaid’s Tale is that you understand there’s this huge operation of people who care who are out there and who are risking themselves to get to reunite with their children. So, is June influencing The Testaments? Absolutely. She’s out there. She’s out there trying to get Hannah back. Do we see her? I would love to see her. But let’s expand into how the people who survive are rebelling in all these different areas. It looks like Gilead is just rife with people who really hate it. So let’s see more of them.”
Margaret Atwood also chimed in. “If you’re an underground resistance fighter, you’re underground—that is the point,” she said. “Nobody knows where you are. Because if they do, you’re going to be dead. June is always there, but in the background. And she turns up at the end of the book, as you will recall.”
When do the events of The Testaments take place?
Although Atwood’s book is set 15 years after the events in The Handmaid’s Tale, the TV adaptation will only take place about five years later, “because it covers Hannah when she’s kind of in her 14, 15, 16-year-old years,” Miller told Variety. “So it’s about five years after “The Handmaid’s Tale,” probably more like three or four, depending on how we judge...”
He added, “And the biggest and the only reason it’s any different is because none of that stuff tracks age-wise. Because our show takes place over a certain time frame, and babies only grow over a certain time frame, and people aren’t just the right ages. Nichole is not going to high school, and so we had to make changes for that.”
Do you need to read The Testaments book before you watch the show?
Not necessarily. In an interview with THR, Miller said, “You should be able to turn on the first episode and enjoy it like a drama. I tried to milk as much as I could from the book, but it doesn’t follow the story or the timeline [exactly] because The Testaments book takes place over a very long period of time.”
This story will be updated.
