You can never escape Gilead—or, at least, Elisabeth Moss can’t. After three long years, The Handmaid’s Tale is just one week away from kicking off its sixth and final season. But if you thought that was it for the upsettingly timely dystopian story, you would be wrong. Today, long-discussed sequel series The Testaments officially received its series order from Hulu, ensuring at least one more outing for the fascist regime. Even if Moss’ June wins the revolution she’s about to lead in the OG show’s finale, her time among the Handmaids isn’t over. She’s also on board to executive produce The Testaments, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Along with the official greenlight, Hulu announced a handful of new cast members for the spinoff. Along with previously announced trio Ann Dowd (reprising her role as the fearsome Aunt Lydia from the original series), Chase Infiniti (Agnes), and Lucy Halliday (Daisy), The Testaments will also star Mabel Li, Amy Seimetz and Brad Alexander, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Eva Foote, Isolde Ardies, Shechinah Mpumlwana, Birva Pandya, and Kira Guloien. Rowan Blanchard (Shunammite, a “pampered teen from a prominent Gilead family”) and Mattea Conforti (Becka, “a girl from humble origins who attends school with Gilead’s elite”) had also previously been announced.
Based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel of the same name and set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments is described by THR as “a coming-of-age story that finds a new generation of young women in Gilead grappling with the bleak future that awaits them.” Original Handmaid’s Tale creator Bruce Miller is signed on as showrunner, with a slated April 7 start date for production—just one day before The Handmaid’s Tale‘s sixth season premiere.
We’ll have to wait some time to actually watch the first season of The Testaments, but for now, check out the seeds of June’s revolution in the final Handmaid’s Tale trailer below: