‘The Testaments’: Premiere Date Revealed for ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Spinoff

The cast also includes Rowan Blanchard and more. Creator and showrunner Bruce Miller says the series will show a completely “opposite” side of Gilead than fans are used to seeing. Here’s everything there is to know about The Testaments now that The Handmaid’s Tale has ended.

When does The Testaments come out?

What is The Testaments about?

Here’s the official series description: “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.”

Dowd told TV Insider that The Testaments is set “four to five years” after the end of The Handmaid’s Tale.” Aunt Lydia is still devoutly religious and living in Gilead in the series, but as seen in Episodes 8 and 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale‘s final season, she’s had a huge moral change and no longer supports the men in power in the oppressive regime.

Rather than work with Handmaids, Lydia is the leader of a new social class called the Pearl Girls. These girls have chosen to be in Gilead, which is of the utmost importance to this new Lydia. Dowd says that Lydia is more “protective” than she is rebellious in The Testaments. In this spinoff, Lydia is asking herself what Gilead means to her now.

Lydia and the Pearl Girls are “living a life that Lydia believes in, and the fact that these Pearl Girls come of their own volition, they make the decision to come and wish to be healed, they’re very, very precious to Lydia as always,” Dowd told TV Insider. “That remains the same, her devotion to her girls. It’s not the Handmaids in The Testaments, it’s the Pearl Girls. The Handmaids are still part of Gilead, but that’s not what we’re focusing on in The Testaments.”

Who is in The Testaments cast?

Dowd, Infiniti, and Halliday were the first stars announced. Blanchard will be a series regular in the debut season. She plays Shunammite, “a pampered teen from a prominent Gilead family whose status affords her a certain level of respect and power amongst her peers,” per Deadline.

Amy Seimetz plays Paula, “the hard-shelled homemaker and fearsome stepmother to Agnes,” per Variety. The younger version of Hannah/Agnes is played by Jordana Blake in The Handmaid’s Tale. Alexander plays Garth, “a young Commander who becomes involved in the personal lives of the girls he’s sworn to protect.” Li plays Aunt Vidala, “the stern heir-apparent to the women’s sphere of Gilead.”

Additional new cast announced on April 1 are Zarrin Darnell-Martin as Aunt Gabbana, Eva Foote as Aunt Estee, Isolde Ardies as Hulda, Shechinah Mpumlwana as Jehosheba, Birva Pandya as Miriam, and Kira Guloien as Rosa.

Infiniti was most recently seen in Apple TV+‘s Presumed Innocent, her first major role. Halliday is a newcomer as well. Her feature film debut was in 2022’s Blue Jean, for which she won a Scottish BAFTA Award for lead actress. She was also nominated for a British Independent Film Award in 2022 for that performance. Halliday recently wrapped filming on James McAvoy‘s California Schemin’.

Agnes is the name given to June and Luke’s daughter, Hannah, after she’s kidnapped by Gilead and taken in by a commander and his wife. Baby Nichole from The Handmaid’s Tale, June and Nick’s daughter, is a character in The Testaments. Her smuggling out of Gilead and into Canada makes her a martyr-like figure for Gilead.

After learning shocking details about her life, Daisy sneaks into Gilead using the name Jade to try to gather intel that could bring down Gilead for good. Agnes, meanwhile, trains to become an aunt (Aunt Victoria) after she’s horrified to learn of Gilead’s customs that would see her married off to a commander at a young age. She gets involved with Mayday, the organization working to bring down Gilead, and meets Daisy in the process.

Infiniti’s casting as Agnes confirms that The Testaments is doing a time jump. And with heavy source material such as this dystopian novel, it’s for the best that kids aren’t taking on these roles.

What happens in The Testaments? Does June ever get Hannah back?

The Testaments takes place after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale and tracks the lives of Lydia, Agnes, and Daisy through alternating POVs. All three are questioning their relationships with Gilead. The series is created and showrun by Bruce Miller.

Viewers already know Lydia and Agnes. Daisy is a young Canadian teen whose life is changed forever when she learns of her connection to the Republic of Gilead.

The Testaments was published in 2019 and is the official sequel to the original book published in 1985. In it, the three main characters recount what happened after the final moments of the first book, when June Osborne was taken by The Eyes (this took place at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1, and all plot since has been created by the show for the show). The fate of Gilead after that moment is revealed in the sequel.

The Testaments is set 15 years after the end of Season 1, which allows The Handmaid’s Tale‘s show plot to exist in that time between. June and Luke never got Hannah back in the original series, but they were still looking for her, albeit separately. The Testaments will show what Hannah’s life looks like now. Aunt Lydia has a surprising development in The Testaments, one that aligns with her waning support of Gilead shown in The Handmaid’s Tale‘s final season.

Miller stepped down from his role on the Emmy-winning drama to refocus his efforts on The Testaments. This was announced in March 2023 in Variety. He had served as showrunner for every season prior.

Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang, who were writers and executive producers on previous seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale, have taken over from Miller as co-showrunners for the sixth and final season, which is currently in production. Miller is still working on Handmaid’s as a writer and executive producer; he’s just no longer steering the ship.

Miller told Deadline that Lydia is losing control in The Handmaid’s Tale, and she will aim to regain it in The Testaments.

“I think that her level of control is kind of getting sapped by herself. She’s undercutting herself and saying, ‘I want to control these women, but I can’t, because I feel like that’s wrong,’ and she’s a very right and wrong person,” he said. “But I think that what she does, what this season brings her to, is the idea that that — what happens to someone who enjoys control when they realize they have nothing? They don’t just fold under. What happens as we move forward and as we move into The Testaments is she tries to get more control.”

He continued: “What becomes someone like Lydia, who has not just the desire to be in control, but confidence and actual competence in being in control? What happens to someone like that? Well, they don’t just sit by the wayside. They actually, if you tell them no and beat them up, they take your country.”

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