'The Handmaid's Tale' Spinoff 'The Testaments' Updates and What We Know So Far

'The Handmaid's Tale' Season 6 premieres in spring 2025, with the planned spinoff series 'The Testaments' still in development at Hulu.

By Allison Schonter

The story of June Osbourne and Gilead may be nearing its "big and wild" conclusion, but that doesn't mean the world established in Margaret Atwood's 1985 futuristic novel The Handmaid's Tale is leaving the screen. As fans of the Elisabeth Moss-starring Hulu original series await The Handmaid's Tale Season 6 premiere next year, they are already looking ahead to the planned spinoff, The Testaments.

Written by Atwood as the second book in the series, The Testaments is set 15 after The Handmaid's Tale, which Hulu first adapted for the screen in April 2017. The award-winning series stars Moss as June, who is forced to serve as a handmaid in Gilead, the patriarchal, totalitarian state that has overthrown the United States government. After moving through its source material in the first season, the series moved away from Atwood's novel and embarked on its own path in the following seasons, which showed June sparking an uprising against Gilead and eventually escaping to Canada.

The Handmaid's Tale is set to conclude with its sixth and final season, which is currently slated for a spring 2025 premiere. Although Season 6 will mark the show's last, it will not mark the end of The Handmaid's Tale universe. More than three decades after The Handmaid's Tale was published, Atwood released a sequel novel, The Testaments, in 2019. The novel is now poised to become a Hulu original series. Keep scrolling to see everything we know about Hulu's The Testaments adaptation.

'Is 'The Testaments' confirmed?

Thankfully, fans won't have to wait around hoping that The Testaments will be ordered. MGM and Hulu in 2019 announced that they would develop The Testaments into a TV adaptation, with Steve Stark, President of Television Production at MGM, saying at the time, Margaret Atwood is a literary icon who continues to delight and challenge readers through her provocative and compelling prose. She has been an incredible creative partner and resource to MGM throughout the production of Handmaid's and we look forward to working with her on the story's exciting next chapter."

It was also reported at the time that MGM and Hulu were in talks with Bruce Miller, showrunner of The Handmaid's Tale, about how the The Testaments can become "an important extension" to the original series.

What is 'The Testaments' about?

A sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments is set 15 years after the events of the 1985 novel. Published in 2019, the novel is narrated by 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 Jemima, 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.

Details for Hulu's adaptation of the series are scarce, though it seems likely that the show will follow a very similar plotline and will focus on those three central characters. Miller recently told The Hollywood Reporter of The Handmaid's Tale's approaching conclusion, "when that time ends, luckily, very fortunately, we get to go into The Testaments, which June's story is a part of but not central to. It's a perfect creative situation that we get to peel off but maintain our connection with all of our characters that we've built and loved, and all of the actors. The part that is heartbreaking and terrifying is to leave the actors behind."

Release Date

Unfortunately, years after the announcement that the series was picked up, a release date still has not been announced for The Testaments. With The Handmaid's Tale set to premiere in spring 2025, it seems likely that fans will have to wait a bit longer for The Testaments, which likely won't be released until 2026 or later.

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Cast

Given how little information has been shared about The Testaments, it comes as little surprise that the cast for the upcoming series has not been announced. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't a few guesses as to who could feature in the show. Given her narrating role in the book, it seems almost guaranteed that Ann Dowd will reprise her role as Aunt Lydia in the sequel show. In fact, recent seasons of the flagship series have even hinted at Aunt Lydia's The Testaments storyline, with the character at one point suggesting a complete restructuring of the handmaid system and vowing "to do things differently."

Dowd herself has expressed interest in appearing on the show, sharing during a 2021 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, "I'm just going to say it right now, I thought to myself I hope they're going to let me play her."

It is also possible that Bradley Whitford will reprise his role as Commander Lawrence. Although he is not a character in Atwood's book, Lawrence was introduced in The Handmaid's Tale as the architect of Gilead, meaning he is central to the creation of the society that has been depicted throughout the past five seasons of The Handmaid's Tale.
Some have also theorized that the Agnes from the book could be the Agnes in the show, or rather, June Osbourne's daughter, who was stolen from her and is now being raised in Gilead by Commander and Mrs. MacKenzie, who renamed her Agnes MacKenzie. It's just as likely, though, that the Agnes from The Testaments could be a different character entirely.

'The Testaments' Most Recent Updates

Although little more info has been shared about The Testaments since the original 2019 announcement, Miller told The Hollywood Reporter in late 2022 that he was "technically checking boxes," explaining that "because the worlds are slightly different with timing, and all the things that are different between a television show and a novel, I have to figure out all of those little things. I'm trying to lay the groundwork."

Most recently, Disney executive Craig Erwich confirmed to Deadline in February that the spinoff show is still in the works.

"The Dan Fogelman show is something we're really excited about. The Handmaid's Tale is going to production this summer, premieres in 2025. In development we have The Testaments behind that, which is an extension of The Handmaid's franchise so we have a very robust slate of scripted programming that we're really excited about," he shared. "Again, our strategy – and it's one that works across the entire company – is a focus on quality versus quantity, not just in terms of how we produce the shows but also in bringing them to market."

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