Everything to Remember About ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Ahead of ‘The Testaments’

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The Handmaid’s Tale wrapped up last May after six seasons, though fans of Hulu’s dystopian Margaret Atwood adaptation already knew a sequel series was on the way. The Testaments, based on Atwood’s 2019 follow-up to her 1985 original novel, will continue the story of Gilead, but it looks to be making at least a few alterations to its source material.

Most notably, at least from what we know ahead of its premiere, The Testaments takes place just a few years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale. In Atwood’s book, there’s a 15-year gap between them. We won’t be spoiling any details from The Testaments (from either the book or the show) here, no matter how much the internet has already made them known.

But we will be retracing the end of The Handmaid’s Tale to let you know where things stand—and where they’ll go next in The Testaments.

Where does the story take place?

Gilead, the setting for The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, is a new country that replaces most of the U.S. after a brutal coup led by right-wing religious extremists moved to action by sharply declining birthrates. Thanks to flashbacks in The Handmaid’s Tale, we see how the general population dismissed or outright ignored any signs of a brewing uprising… until it was too late.

In keeping with its focus on reproduction, the new regime is wildly misogynist—women are completely subjugated. They’re not allowed to have jobs, speak freely, or even read and write. And they, and everyone else, are kept in line by the Guardians, a heavily armed security force, as well as the Eyes, the dreaded secret police fond of hanging dissidents and leaving their dead bodies dangling for all to see.

Gilead’s signature horror, however, is its practice of sexual slavery. This takes the form of the red-cloaked Handmaids—targeted because of their perceived fertility—who are ritually raped by Gilead’s most elite men, or “Commanders,” for the purposes of producing children.

The other roles for women in Gilead? Well, there are the “Wives”—married to the Commanders—who submit to their husbands because they’ve bought into the idea of making other women into baby machines. Some of them actually do long to be mothers; others are just going through the motions because in Gilead, appearances are everything and children are a status symbol.

And the Wives can be just as cruel as their Commander husbands. They may have no place in Gilead’s male-dominated leadership, but they take out their frustrations on the women enslaved in their households. Along with their designated Handmaids, that also includes the “Marthas” who do all the cooking, cleaning, and domestic chores.

Gilead also has a slightly elevated class of deeply pious, unmarried women in the “Aunts.” In The Handmaid’s Tale, their leader is Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), who oversees the “Red Center” where Handmaids are trained and punished.

You can tell all the women in Gilead apart by their outfits. Gilead is obsessed with conformity, and that includes an intense dedication to color coordination. Handmaids wear red, obviously. Wives are in blue. The Aunts and the Marthas wear drab shades of gray, brown, and olive.

The Testaments will build on that palette as it explores the world of girls raised by top-ranking Gilead families. We got a few glimpses of this in The Handmaid’s Tale—especially as June (Elisabeth Moss), that show’s main character, tries to track down her daughter, Hannah, who’s been kidnapped into Gilead. The Testaments trailer and artwork show its younger generations of characters dressed in a variety of new shades, especially white and purple.

What happened at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale?

Protected by six seasons’ worth of plot armor and some extremely good luck, June survived—after leading “Mayday,” the main resistance group, in a fight that does some major damage to the Gilead stronghold that was once Boston, Massachusetts. In the series finale, she returns to the badly damaged mansion where she once toiled as a Handmaid and starts writing her story (the final episode’s title is also “The Handmaid’s Tale”).

But the triumphs we saw as The Handmaid’s Tale ended—including a rebellion that begins when a sedative-laced wedding cake immobilizes Gilead’s high society; an airplane bomb that wipes out all the Boston Commanders; and good, old-fashioned mob violence—are framed as a small step forward. Gilead still exists. It still has plenty of weapons, and its leaders cling to the same draconian beliefs.

Are there any Handmaid’s Tale characters in The Testaments?

We know for certain that Aunt Lydia returns—and based on what we’ve seen in the marketing materials, she’s back in Gilead’s good graces, despite her wavering commitment to the cause at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale.

She’s also seemingly no longer dealing with Handmaids; we’re not even sure if any Handmaids will feature in the new show. (At the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, it was suggested that women in Gilead were starting to become fertile again.) Surely we’ll be learning more about Aunt Lydia’s journey in The Testaments, especially with the formidable Dowd back to play her again.

As for any other familiar faces, we don’t know yet. The Handmaid’s Tale’s main cast of characters had a substantial number of survivors at the end, so the potential is certainly there, especially with the new show’s compressed timeline compared to the book. For the most part, though, The Testaments appears focused on its next-generation cast.

What is The Testaments about?

Here’s the official synopsis from Hulu: “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.”

The Testaments has some key Handmaid’s Tale folks behind the scenes, including showrunner and executive producer Bruce Miller; Elisabeth Moss is also an executive producer.

Aside from Dowd, the listed cast are all new, though you may recognize some names among them. Chase Infiniti (the breakout star of One Battle After Another) plays the main character, Agnes. We’ll also get to know Lucy Halliday as her co-lead, Daisy.

Other stars include Mabel Li, Amy Seimetz, Brad Alexander, Rowan Blanchard, Mattea Conforti, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Eva Foote, Isolde Ardies, Shechinah Mpumlwana, Birva Pandya, and Kira Guloien.

The Testaments premieres April 8 with its first three episodes on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

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