If you are a fan of The Handmaid’s Tale who finds themselves simply beside themselves knowing that the long-running series will soon come to an end, fear not, as a sequel is in the works. Yes, like most money-making productions, the studio isn’t quite ready to bid adieu to the story that kicked-off its first season in 2017, with Hulu moving forward on a new project set in the absolutely horrifying (yet ever increasingly realistic) world first imagined by author Margaret Atwood. Title The Testaments, Deadline reveals that the production is on the heels of a greenlight and has even found one of its leading stars in Presumed Innocent’s Chase Infiniti. We also know that a divisive character from the original story will pop up in the follow-up, with horror icon Ann Dowd (Hereditary, The Leftovers) set to reprise her role as Lydia — a part that nabbed her an Emmy Award in 2017.
Audiences can expect The Testaments to follow in the footsteps of Atwood’s 2019 novel of the same name, so, if you’ve read the book, then you already have a solid handle on the plot. Set nearly two full decades after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the new series will focus on three women, Aunt Lydia (Dowd), Agnes (Infiniti) and Daisy, who unfortunately find themselves living in the nightmarish Gilead — a place where religion is held in the highest esteem above all else. When the trio of gals inadvertently stumbles upon some guarded secrets about Gilead, their lives are flipped upside down, and they’re put in extreme danger. Still, lurking below the surface of the dystopian theocracy is a group of resistance fighters, with the women also finding themselves seduced by the idea of change and freedom.
The Creative Minds Behind ‘The Testaments’
Eying a production start date sometime in late March in Toronto, the off-shoot is the brainchild of Bruce Miller, who also had the bright idea of moving Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale from page to screen. Miller will also serve the project as its showrunner and will executive produce alongside Warren Littlefiend under The Littlefield Company banner. Amazon MGM Studios will back the title. It sounds like the ideal situation is for Moss to pop in and out of The Testaments, returning to her character, June, who audiences have come to know and love over the almost six seasons of the flagship series. We also know that Infiniti’s character, Agnes, is set up in the series to be June’s daughter, solidifying a popular theory from the book on which the show is based.
Stay tuned to Collider for more information about The Testaments. The sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale is set for release on April 8.
via Collider