Weeks ago, The Handmaid’s Tale came to an end after six seasons. While not every story found a tidy conclusion, we at least know who survived to continue the fight against Gilead—or in some cases, continue to exist within its dystopia.
With no fear of Handmaid‘s spoilers holding them back, the creators of both the original show and its upcoming follow-up, The Testaments—based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 sequel to her groundbreaking 1985 novel—are lifting the lid a tiny bit on the new series. It began filming six weeks after Handmaid’s wrapped, and features an all-new cast alongside Ann Dowd, reprising her Emmy-winning Handmaid’s role as Aunt Lydia.
A new Hollywood Reporter piece featuring interviews with Atwood, Bruce Miller (who created both shows), and executive producer Warren Littlefield doesn’t definitively answer the number one burning question fans have about The Testaments: will Elisabeth Moss’ June return? It’s tempting to hope, considering one of The Testaments‘ main characters is June’s long-lost daughter Hannah, renamed Agnes after being kidnapped and raised within Gilead society.
“She threw herself back and she couldn’t walk away from her daughter, so June is still doing her job,” Miller said, noting that June, Hannah’s father Luke (O-T Fagbenle), and June’s best friend Moira (Samira Wiley) are all “still out there somewhere ringing the bell to get Hannah back.” (Later in the THR piece, Miller said the only character he’s absolutely certain will not return in The Testaments is Yvonne Strahovski’s Serena.)
However, it sounds like The Testaments will widen the lens of that one family’s story. “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,” Miller continued.
“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.”
Even Atwood herself, who notes that June does turn up at the end of her book, won’t say for sure whether Moss—an executive producer on The Testaments—will have an on-camera role. “If you’re an underground resistance fighter, you’re underground—that is the point. Nobody knows where you are,” the author said. “Because if they do, you’re going to be dead. June is always there, but in the background.”
And just because June’s in the book doesn’t mean she’s guaranteed to appear in the show. The THR piece notes that The Testaments takes liberties with its source material, much like the original series did. For instance: on the page, the story picks up 15 years after Handmaid’s. On-screen, it’ll be just four years later.
Still, Littlefield explained, the story will feel fresh and different to what’s come before. “Aunt Lydia is really our only continuing character. Aunt Lydia has a school for girls to prepare them for womanhood and life in a Gilead world. What’s so fascinating is that these young women have never known a world that’s not a Gilead world. That’s completely different from our June point of view that always was our rudder for The Handmaid’s Tale. They’re also teenagers. So there’s a rebelliousness—there’s attitude about everything.”
There’s no release date yet for The Testaments, but next year feels like a good guess. Will you be making the trip back to Gilead when it premieres?
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