After the wrap-up of The Handmaid’s Tale, fans are eager to know the release date of the sequel, The Testaments. The second part of The Handmaid’s Tale will follow June’s daughter, Hannah, who has grown up with a commander family away from Boston. Among the key characters, Ann Dowd’s Aunt Lydia will return to The Testaments.
When is The Testaments’ expected release date window?
The release date of The Testaments is yet to be announced. Hulu has revealed that the production of the series started on April 7, 2025. In an Instagram post, Hulu revealed The Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss will return to the project as an executive producer of the series.
As the production of the series is already underway, viewers can expect The Testaments to premiere in 2026 or early 2027.
Who will be in The Testaments’ cast?
Among The Testaments’ cast, Ann Dowd will return as a recurring character. The cast will portray the new generation of young women who have grown up in Gilead. It includes:
- Chase Infiniti: Agnes or Hannah
- Mabel Li: Aunt Vidala
- Rowan Blanchard: Shunammite
- Lucy Halliday: Daisy
- Eva Foote: Aunt Estee
- Ann Dowd: Aunt Lydia
- Kira Guloien: Rosa
- Shechinah Mpumlwana: Jehosheba
- Mattea Conforti: Becka
- Amy Seimetz: Paula
- Isolde Ardies: Hulda
- Birva Pandya: Miriam
- Brad Alexander: Garth
The Testaments’ known plot details so far
Following Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel The Testaments, the new Hulu series will depict the world of a new generation of women of Gilead. The story takes place fifteen years after The Handmaid’s Tale.
Hulu explains, “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.” So the women face “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.” (via USA Today)
Bruce Miller, the showrunner of The Testaments, teased that the world of Gilead in the upcoming sequel will be “different” than what viewers have seen in The Handmaid’s Tale. Miller told The Hollywood Reporter, “The Testaments was an independent curveball created by Margaret Atwood for the series I was working on.”
He added, “The way Margaret did it, which is wonderful, is that you close one and you say, ‘I don’t have to open that. But let’s open the next one and see what’s in there. It could be anything.’ It is a continuation, but it’s more like a separate chapter. The horizons are more limitless.”
