‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Sequel Series ‘The Testaments’ Greenlit at Hulu, Cast Photo Released

It’s official – Hulu isn’t leaving Gilead just yet.

Just a week ahead of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 premiere, the streamer on Tuesday handed a series order to the sequel show The Testaments. The series is set to begin production on April 7.

Hulu announced the news with a cast photo. Joining the previously announced cast of Ann Dowd (Aunt Lydia), Chase Infiniti (Agnes), Lucy Halliday (Daisy), Rowen Blanchard (Shunammite), and Mattea Conforti (Becka), are nine newcomers to the cast. They include Mabel Li (Aunt Vidala), Amy Seimetz (Paula), Brad Alexander (Garth), Zarrin Darnell-Martin (Aunt Gabbana), Eva Foote (Aunt Estee), Isolde Ardies (Hulda), Shechinah Mpumlwana (Jehosheba), Birva Pandya (Miriam), and Kira Guloien (Rosa). Deadline reports that Elizabeth Moss, who will executive produce the series, may also reprise her role as June Osbourne, Agnes’ mother, but her casting isn’t yet confirmed.

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The Testaments is based on a 2019 novel by Margaret Atwood. The book, as well as the upcoming series, serves as a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale and is set 15 years after the events of that story. It largely centers around three women with ties to Gilead – Lydia, a divorced judge-turned-Aunt who secretly despises Gilead and becomes a mole supplying critical information to the Mayday resistance organization; Agnes, a young woman raised in the oppressive society as the daughter of Commander Kyle and his wife Tabitha; and Daisy, a Canadian teen who learns she was actually born in Gilead.

A synopsis for the Hulu series reads, “For these young women, growing up in Gilead is all they have ever known, having no tangible memories of the outside world prior to their indoctrination into this life,” reads the description. “Facing the prospect of being married off and living a life of servitude, they will be forced to search for allies, both new and old, to help in their fight for freedom and the life they deserve.”

The Testaments is produced by MGM Television and created by showrunner and executive producer Bruce Miller. Along with Moss and Miller, executive producers on the series include Warren Littlefield, Steve Stark, Shana Stein, Maya Goldsmith, John Weber, Sheila Hockin, Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears, and Mike Barker. Barker is set to direct the show’s first three episodes.