{"id":178818,"date":"2025-12-07T06:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/178818\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T06:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:01:09","slug":"first-look-at-handmaids-tale-sequel-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/178818\/","title":{"rendered":"First Look at Handmaid’s Tale Sequel Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Testaments<\/a> is ready to go back to Gilead.<\/p>\n

\n\tHulu\u2019s highly anticipated sequel series<\/a> to The Handmaid\u2019s Tale <\/a>got a first look and premiere month on Saturday, the news coming out of CCXP25 Brazil. The Testaments, based on Margaret Atwood\u2019s 2019 Booker Prize-winning sequel novel of the same name, will premiere April 2026 on Hulu and Disney+.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first photos released from the series include early looks at the returning Aunt Lydia, played by The Handmaid\u2019s Tale star Ann Dowd, as well as new characters played by Chase Infiniti<\/a>, who steps into the role of Agnes\/Hannah<\/a> \u2014 the daughter to June Osborne, who was played by Elisabeth Moss<\/a> in The Handmaid\u2019s Tale \u2014 as well as the characters played by Lucy Halliday, Rowan Blanchard, Mattea Conforti, Isolde Ardies, Shechinah Mpumlwana and Birva Pandya.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tChase Infiniti in \u2018The Testaments.\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney<\/p>\n

\n\tHalliday plays Daisy, a young Canadian teen whose life is turned upside down when she learns of her connection to the Republic of Gilead; Blanchard plays Shunammite,\u00a0a\u00a0pampered teen from a prominent Gilead family. Ardies plays Hulda, a\u00a0guileless\u00a0girl, full of excitement at the prospect of womanhood. Mpumlwana plays Jehosheba, a\u00a0competitive\u00a0classmate from a respected family. Pandya plays Miriam, a\u00a0girl on the cusp of womanhood who struggles under the pressure of marriage season.<\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s the official series synopsis: \u201cThe Testaments takes place in the dystopian theocracy of Gilead. Years after the events of The Handmaid\u2019s Tale,<\/a> The Testaments is a coming-of-age story that finds a new generation of young women in Gilead grappling with the bleak future that awaits them. For these young women, growing up in Gilead is all they have ever known, having no tangible memories of the outside world prior to their indoctrination into this life. Facing the prospect of being married off and living a life of servitude, they will be forced to search for allies, both new and old, to help in their fight for freedom and the life they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Testaments is produced by MGM Television and created for television by showrunner and executive producer Bruce Miller<\/a>, who created The Handmaid\u2019s Tale and was showrunner for the first five seasons. He remained an executive producer for the final season while shifting gears to work on The Testaments. He also wrote the series finale, which was directed by Moss. The final scene brought to series\u00a0full-circle with an ending Miller had always envisioned<\/a>, where June ends the series speaking the words that opened the show.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sequel series is executive produced by Warren Littlefield<\/a>, The Handmaid\u2019s Tale star\/executive producer\/director Moss, Steve Stark, Shana Stein, Maya Goldsmith, John Weber, Sheila Hockin, Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears and Mike Barker, who will also direct the first three episodes. <\/p>\n

\n\tMabel Li, Amy Seimetz, Brad Alexander, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Eva Foote and Kira Guloien round out the cast. While Moss has not been confirmed among the cast, her June Osborne will be present over The Testaments given how The Handmaid\u2019s Tale ended.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe Testaments\u00a0centers on the young girls in Gilead who are training to be wives \u2014 and that includes Hannah (who has been renamed Agnes), the daughter who was ripped from June\u2019s arms and taken into Gilead at the start of The Handmaid\u2019s Tale. The Handmaid\u2019s Tale and The Testaments author Atwood<\/a>\u00a0and Miller\u00a0had explained in\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter\u2018s oral history on The Handmaid\u2019s Tale <\/a>how Atwood\u2019s sequel novel helped set\u00a0the show\u2019s ending on a different course.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018The Testaments\u2019 season one.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney<\/p>\n

\n\tHannah is in Gilead when The Testaments begins its story.\u00a0So The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u00a0couldn\u2019t end with June reuniting<\/a>\u00a0with her first-born daughter. Atwood had given Miller\u00a0a small no-kill list\u00a0<\/a>midway through the series that included directives to leave June, her two daughters (Nichole, her youngest daughter, goes by Holly by the series\u2019 end) and Aunt Lydia (Dowd<\/a>) alive, the latter being the connecting character in the sequel.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2018s season six\u00a0co-showrunners Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang<\/a>\u00a0ended June\u2019s tale with an eye towards Hannah\u2019s story. In the series finale, June decides to go back into Gilead and never stop fighting to get her back. She leaves Holly behind with her mother (Cherry Jones). Moss hasn\u2019t confirmed she\u2019ll have an onscreen role. But Miller wanted to keep that hope alive for viewers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe threw herself back and she couldn\u2019t walk away from her daughter, so June is still doing her job. She\u2019s still doing what she was doing in\u00a0The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u00a0[along with] Luke [O-T Fagbenle<\/a>] and Moira [Samira Wiley<\/a>] \u2014 they\u2019re still out there somewhere ringing the bell to get Hannah back,\u201d the creator of both series told\u00a0THR.<\/a> \u201cIs June influencing\u00a0The Testaments? Absolutely. She\u2019s out there. She\u2019s out there trying to get Hannah back. Do we see her? I would love to see her. But let\u2019s 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\u2019s see more of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAtwood added, \u201cIf you\u2019re an underground resistance fighter, you\u2019re underground \u2014 that is the point. Nobody knows where you are. Because if they do, you\u2019re 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.\u201d [Read book spoilers here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLucy Halliday in \u2018The Testaments\u2019.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale left viewers with a victory in Boston. The Testaments\u00a0novel opened several years after\u00a0The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u00a0book ended, but since the series continued well beyond the book\u2019s timeline, the gap narrows between the two series.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Testaments\u00a0in our world is four years after the end of our series,\u201d Littlefield previously revealed to THR<\/a>. \u201cAunt Lydia has a school for girls to prepare them for womanhood and life in a Gilead world. What\u2019s so fascinating is that these young women have never known a world that\u2019s not a Gilead world. That\u2019s completely different from our June point of view that always was our rudder for\u00a0The Handmaid\u2019s Tale. They\u2019re also teenagers. So there\u2019s a rebelliousness \u2014 there\u2019s attitude about everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMiller has been developing\u00a0The Testaments\u00a0since 2023<\/a>.\u00a0The Testaments\u00a0went into production six weeks after\u00a0The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u00a0finished filming.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018The Testaments\u2019 season one.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Testaments is ready to go back to Gilead. Hulu\u2019s highly anticipated sequel series to The Handmaid\u2019s Tale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[97461,97462,11603,40798,93,61,60,97463,97464,97465,282,97466],"class_list":{"0":"post-178818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-ann-dowd","9":"tag-bruce-miller","10":"tag-chase-infiniti","11":"tag-elisabeth-moss","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-margaret-atwood","16":"tag-the-handmaids-tale","17":"tag-the-testaments","18":"tag-tv","19":"tag-warren-littlefield"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}