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Who’s ready to go back to Gilead? As the real world gets increasingly grimmer by the day, Hulu is about to hold up a mirror while reminding us how much worse it can actually get—much like it did across six seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale. Starting April 8, sequel series The Testaments, based on Margaret Atwood’s follow-up novel, will bring us back to that repressive realm, picking up not too long after the main series’ semi-hopeful finale.
When The Testaments was in production, the biggest cast name was Ann Dowd—returning to reprise her Emmy-winning role as Aunt Lydia, the most complex (and occasionally heartbreakingly sympathetic) villain on a show with no shortage of them. But now there’ll be plenty of eyeballs tuning in to see Chase Infiniti, who plays the leading role of Agnes on the heels of her big breakout in One Battle After Another.
Here’s the official synopsis of the show:
“An evolution of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments is based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name and is a dramatic coming-of-age story set in Gilead. The series follows young teens Agnes, dutiful and pious, and Daisy, a new arrival and convert from beyond Gilead’s borders. As they navigate the gilded halls of Aunt Lydia’s elite preparatory school for future wives, a place where obedience is instilled brutally and always with divine justification, their bond becomes the catalyst that will upend their past, their present, and their future.”
The rest of the cast includes Lucy Halliday (she plays Daisy), Mabel Li, Amy Seimetz, Brad Alexander, Rowan Blanchard, Mattea Conforti, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Eva Foote, Isolde Ardies, Shechinah Mpumlwana, Birva Pandya, and Kira Guloien. The Testaments comes from The Handmaid’s Tale showrunner Bruce Miller, who handles the same duties here; he’s also an executive producer among a list that also includes Handmaid‘s star and frequent director Elisabeth Moss.
(Might Moss’ character, the unsinkable June Osborne, appear in the new series? It seems likely and it makes sense for the story, as book readers will know—though Hulu ain’t saying yet.)
The streamer also dropped several first-look images, giving us some hints about what to expect from Dowd, Infinity, Halliday, and the rest of the cast. Gilead still looks as burnished and terrifying as ever, despite that revolution in Handmaid’s season six…
The Testaments drops its first three episodes April 8, with a weekly rollout thereafter, on Hulu.
English (US) ·