The Handmaid's Tale Promotes Longtime Cast Member to Series Regular Ahead of Final Season

Ever Carradine, who plays Naomi, has been a cast member since Season 1.

By Nicole Drum

The Handmaid's Tale is making a big change for its final season. According to Deadline, Ever Carradine has been promoted to series regular for the sixth and final season of the Hulu drama. Carradine has been a cast member of The Handmaid's Tale since Season 1 in a recurring role as Naomi. Initially married to Commander Putnam (Stephen Kunken), she was widowed in Season 5 and married Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) becoming Naomi Lawrence. In addition to her role on The Handmaid's Tale, Carradine has appeared in Marvel's Runaways, The Neighborhood, The Conners, Major Crimes, and more.  Production on the final season of The Handmaid's Tale is expected to begin this summer.

Carradine's promotion to series regular is just the latest news about The Handmaid's Tale's final season. It was recently reported that series star Elisabeth Moss will be behind the camera for the final season of the series. Moss is set to direct four episodes in Season 6, including the season premiere and the series finale. The four Season 6 episodes Moss will direct is set to bring her behind-the-camera episode count on the series to 10 as she's previously directed three episodes each in both Seasons 4 and 5, including the latter's season finale. Moss also recently teased that the final season of The Handmaid's Tale will be "wild" and "surprising".

"It's pretty wild, the final season, honestly," Moss said. "It definitely has final-season energy."

She added, "It's big and wild, and goes to many different places, and it is very, very surprising all the way through."

The Final Season of The Handmaid's Tale Won't Arrive For Awhile

While production on Season 6 of The Handmaid's Tale is set to start production this summer, the wait for it to debut will be awhile with the series not likely to be released until 2025, something Moss recently addressed.

"We are going back to shoot this summer. Our final season," Moss said at the time. "People are really starting to get upset. Especially when I tell them that we haven't even started shooting yet. Like, 'When is it coming back?' 'Well…' They get a little upset. It probably won't be [released] until maybe 2025."

A The Handmaid's Tale Spinoff Is In the Works

While The Handmaid's Tale is coming to an end, the story isn't exactly over. A spinoff, The Testaments, which is based on Margaret Atwood's 2019 novel, is actively in development with Bruce Miller, who was showrunner for The Handmaid's Tale for its first five seasons, in charge.

"The Testaments was an independent curveball created by Margaret Atwood for the series I was working on. I think she had had it in her head for a while. I tried as much as possible, and I'm still trying, to not really make The Handmaid's Tale about The Testaments," Miller shared about the new series. "The Handmaid's Tale should be good on its own and when it's done, it should be a nice little TV set that you put on the shelf next to the novel, and it hopefully adds to your enjoyment of it, and then you can move onto The Testaments."

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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."

Stay tuned for updates on the future of The Handmaid's Tale.

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