June (Elisabeth Moss) Hulu
The Handmaid’s Tale is coming to an end — but its spinoff series, The Testaments, could be here before you know it.
Hulu is close to giving a series order to The Testaments, according to Deadline. With the writing team hard at work, Ann Dowd is expected to reprise her role of Aunt Lydia with Chase Infiniti set to star as Agnes. Now, Lucy Halliday has reportedly joined in the role of Daisy. The newcomer is set to play “a young Canadian teen whose life is turned upside down when she learns of her connection to the Republic of Gilead.”
The Handmaid’s Tale universe was brought to life when Hulu adapted Margaret Atwood‘s 1985 novel of the same name in 2017. Atwood’s dystopian universe follows a future where low fertility rates have led women to be assigned to men for bearing children. Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, Madeline Brewer, Dowd, O-T Fagbenle, Max Minghella, Samira Wiley and Amanda Brugel have led the cast since the show premiered in 2017.
After The Handmaid’s Tale‘s final season was announced in 2022, creator Bruce Miller stepped down as showrunner to work on The Testaments as executive producers Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang took over the day-to-day duties on the flagship drama.
“We are making The Testaments, and it’s not going to track precisely,” Miller told TVLine at the time. “Margaret writes these absolutely deliciously specific characters. We had to go away from that in Handmaid’s, and we’re going to have to go away from that in Testaments. Testaments is certainly going to be a sequel to the show.”
Director Elisabeth Moss and Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd). Sophie Giraud/Hulu
Set 15 years later, The Testaments is narrated by Aunt Lydia as viewers are thrust back into the dystopian future with new characters such as Agnes from Gilead and Daisy from Canada as they secretly gather and smuggle incriminating information about Gilead’s regime out of the country. Agnes and Daisy pose as “Pearl Girls” to infiltrate Canada, while Aunt Lydia acts as a covert source within Gilead.
“Although I could not continue with the story of Offred, I could continue with three other people concerned in these events and tell the story of the beginning of the end, because we know from The Handmaid’s Tale that Gilead vanishes,” Atwood told journalists at an event in 2019. “It’s no longer present 200 years into the future, because they’re having a symposium on it. How did it collapse? How do these kinds of regimes disappear? I was interested in exploring that.”
She continued: “There [are] some new costume choices in this book. Human beings throughout time love outfits that tell you who you’re looking at, like football teams and things like that. So yes, we have some new outfits.”
Atwood said she kept Miller updated on her plans as The Handmaid’s Tale was coming to an end.
“I read the scripts; I make notes on them,” she added. “I have influence but no actual power. But luckily we’re in accord most of the time.”
