The first three episodes of The Testaments are here, and that means the show’s biggest surprise—which many fans of The Handmaid’s Tale had anticipated—is out of the bag. But there’s another surprising cameo that some viewers might not have initially picked up on: Stephen Colbert, last heard making announcements as the Digital Dean of Students on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, also has a voiceover role in the new Hulu series.
The big reveal in The Testaments is Elisabeth Moss’ return as Handmaid’s Tale hero June Osborne. You have to wait until the end of the first episode to actually lay eyes on her, but her voice is immediately discernible far earlier, when we overhear a radio transmission meant for undercover agents in Gilead—including the teenage Daisy (Lucy Halliday). The clandestine messages pop up from time to time throughout the series, passing coded instructions, warnings, and words of encouragement.
But there’s another voice in the mix that you might also recognize, especially if you watched the recent first season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. It’s talk-show host and noted Lord of the Rings superfan Stephen Colbert. He welcomes listeners to “Radio Free Boston” and reminds everyone, in the words of June Osborne herself, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, The Testaments creator, executive producer, and showrunner Bruce Miller, who had the same role on The Handmaid’s Tale, explained why he brought Colbert about the sequel series.
“I thought he’d be great for the job. He was wonderful to do it. I feel like he’s been a voice, you know. He’s a voice of America I was putting out on the airways. It’s just like Oprah,” Miller said.
As EW reminds us, Oprah Winfrey also had a voice cameo on The Handmaid’s Tale in 2018, “announcing international sanctions on Gilead and a new American refugee program just when June needed some good news.”
Miller noted that there was specific reasoning behind casting these particular famous voices. “Knowing who Oprah was, knowing Stephen Colbert, his voice, even The Colbert Report that he used to do, all of that put together into a free speech context and what America should stand for was fascinating.”
You can watch the first three episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ now.
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