The final season of The Handmaid’s Tale is headed to Hulu on April 8th, but with a sequel series on the horizon, the story is far from over — and now we’re finally getting a major update. On Thursday, it was announced that sequel series The Testaments has cast Chase Infiniti as one of the series’ three leads. She will join The Handmaid’s Tale star Anne Dowd, who is expected to reprise her role of Aunt Lydia according to Deadline. The series, which has been in development since 2022, is reportedly looking to begin filming at the end of March. An official series order has not yet been announced.
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The Testaments is based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name which is itself a sequel to her novel The Handmaid’s Tale upon which the first television series is based. Set in the dystopian theocracy of Gilead, The Testaments takes place 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale. Narrated by Aunt Lydia, the story follows two young women: Agnes, who lives in Gilead, and Daisy, who lives in Canada, whose fates become intertwined as they uncover not only the secrets of Gilead but the resistance as well.
[RELATED: The Handmaid’s Tale Star Elisabeth Moss Says Final Season is “For the Fans”]
Infiniti is set to play Agnes in The Testaments and is perhaps best known for her role as Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Negga’s daughter in Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent. Per the report, in the television series, Agnes is June (Elisabeth Moss) and Luke (O-T Fagbenle), something that is suggested in the novel but not outright stated. It is currently unclear if Moss will appear in the television sequel. Bruce Miller, who served as showrunner for the first five seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale, is set to serve as showrunner for The Testaments. He will executive produce alongside fellow The Handmaid’s Tale executive producer Warren Littlefield.
“While [Handmaid’s Tale] was developed in an Obama administration, when we were shooting, I think, Episode 4 of Season 1, Trump came to office and, while we thought and hoped and prayed that we would be less relevant a series, the longer we were on, the more relevant we became,” Littlefield said previously. “Our thematics only got stronger, sadly, and today, as we think and discuss plans for Testaments, it feels like there’s a reason to keep this world alive.”
What Does The Testaments Mean for the Final Season of The Handmaid’s Tale?
At this point, it is unclear exactly what direction the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale will take, but we can look to the details of Atwood’s The Testaments for a potential roadmap — and it may not be a happy ending. While Atwood noted when the book was first announced back in 2018 that “The Testaments is not connected to the television adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale,” Miller has previously acknowledged that the novel’s storyline will be taken into account The Handmaid’s Tale ends its run — something that Infiniti’s casting of Agnes seems to confirm.
“The Testaments was an independent curveball created by Margaret Atwood for the series I was working on,” Miller said previously. “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. 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, an then you can move onto The Testaments.”
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.”
Are you excited for The Testaments? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!
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Image courtesy of The CW
