{"id":397240,"date":"2026-03-21T22:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T22:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/397240\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T22:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T22:06:12","slug":"the-testaments-team-talks-making-the-handmaids-tale-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/397240\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Testaments’ Team Talks Making ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Sequel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u201d sequel \u201cThe Testaments<\/a>,\u201d based on a 2019 novel by Margaret Atwood<\/a>, is expanding the Gilead universe.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was very exciting to see this other side of Gilead, with all these privileged people. \u2018The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2019 was about those at the very bottom of the social structure. Here are the women who are at the absolute top. And it still kind of sucks,\u201d said creator Bruce Miller at French fest Series Mania after the show\u2019s world premiere<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSet in Aunt Lydia\u2019s elite preparatory school for future wives, the show follows the daughters of Commanders, many of whom have been taken away from their birth parents, and so-called Pearl Girls, recruited from outside Gilead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs Bruce said, it\u2019s a different world entirely. And Lydia is a different person,\u201d said Ann Dowd, who won an Emmy for her role. Her character emerges from a \u201cvery crushed place\u201d at the end of \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe was brought to her knees, literally, in deep and profound remorse. When that happens, you can say: \u2018I don\u2019t care. I will keep doing what I\u2019m doing.\u2019 Or you can change the way you see the world, acknowledge what you have done, live with the pain and the misery of that, and begin a new life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI remember those early scripts and how clear they were about who Lydia is. I was raised in a Catholic home and educated by Catholic sisters. They weren\u2019t unkind, but you learn that you\u2019re not special. You have a job to do, so don\u2019t look for attention. Don\u2019t walk away before it\u2019s complete. Get it done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough the environment Aunt Lydia creates for her students comes with \u201cless pain and suffering,\u201d Gilead\u2019s rules are still strict.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know if [the current political situation] makes the story more relevant today than at any other time, but the interesting thing about Margaret Atwood is that she puts her finger on the points of friction that exist forever,\u201d noted Miller, who first discovered her work in college.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat was a long, long, long time ago, and it seemed like the right time to read that book. Then, 25 or 30 years later, I made the show and it still seemed as if ait was built for that time. It\u2019s the same with \u2018The Testaments.\u2019 I think it\u2019s more of a reflection on Margaret\u2019s sense of where women are and what things they\u2019re always fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added: \u201cAs Margaret says, you can look back on any point in history and find horrible things being done to women. But I think having her write \u2018The Testaments\u2019 and say there\u2019s hope in Gilead, is really her way of saying there\u2019s hope for women in general. Women will move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJoining Ann Dowd are Chase Infiniti<\/a>, acclaimed for her turn in Oscar-winning \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d as the daughter of Tayana Taylor\u2019s Perfidia Beverly Hills, and Lucy Halliday. As Agnes and Daisy, they form an unexpected friendship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tChase Infiniti in \u2018The Testaments\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were very grateful to have Ann, [producer] Warren Littlefield, Bruce and also Elizabeth Moss, who\u2019s an executive producer, as our encyclopedias for everything. We could ask them any question we had about Gilead. On top of that, they welcomed us into the world with such love and support,\u201d said Infiniti, who \u201cfell in love\u201d with the script.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was so intriguing, and so different from Willa and \u2018One Battle\u2019. I thought I would have a hard time with the source material \u2013 it\u2019s incredibly heavy. But because of the community that was built on set, anytime I struggled, they were there to catch me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Halliday, they both felt a \u201cweight of responsibility.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2018The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2019 was so beloved. It really resonated with audiences, and the books were so brilliant. When you step into it, you want to do it justice. You don\u2019t want to be the cog in the machine that disrupts what already existed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMiller also praised Mike Barber, \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u201d veteran who directed the first three episodes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo one knows \u2018The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2019 better than Barber. He also knew what things he would like to do differently and what he could do with a younger cast. He was amazing at building the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUltimately though, it\u2019s all about Margaret Atwood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMargaret\u2019s very involved in the show, and she\u2019s busier than all of you put together. She\u2019s the busiest 86-year-old I\u2019ve ever met! From the beginning, she was more used to her work getting adapted than I was adapting her work. \u2018The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2019 was a play, an opera, a ballet, and a movie. She was very loose with it and I was a little stricter,\u201d he recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShe still gets every script and watches every episode.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe\u2019s the first person I talk to \u2013 even before the studio, before Warren. She has to say: \u2018Ok, that makes sense.\u2019 When you see her eyes light up, you know you really got something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWarren Littlefield added: \u201cEvery time we\u2019ve spoken to Margaret, we\u2019ve learned something about the world we live in. We always felt just a little bit smarter.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Testaments\u201d also expands the color palette of the show, with young female students dressed in pink and purple, and with white reserved for the Pearl Girls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMargaret and I talked about it a lot. We had all these new characters and we wanted to underline they were still cloaked by Gilead. They were still categorized by Gilead, but they were different women,\u201d said Miller.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe had discussions about shorts sleeves, tons of discussions about the length of skirts and how much skin you could show. It got weird. You start feeling like you\u2019re naked when you\u2019re wearing your regular clothes, because it\u2019s so restrictive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLittlefield observed: \u201cThe red robe from \u2018The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2019 is so iconic. It has been used as a symbol around the world, and it has made us tremendously proud. But you won\u2019t find it in \u2018The Testaments.\u2019 That\u2019s part of us saying: This is a new world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBruce and I had a wonderful experience watching June [played by Elisabeth Moss<\/a>] come to life. We saw her on the monitor, and we said: \u2018I think this is going to work.\u2019 Now, all these years later, we were on the set of \u2018The Testaments,\u2019 looking at the monitor and watching Chase as Agnes. It was history repeating itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018The Testaments\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u201d sequel \u201cThe Testaments,\u201d based on a 2019 novel by Margaret Atwood, is expanding the Gilead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[47844,18,63569,117,19,17,8270,118704,118705,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-397240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-chase-infiniti","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-elisabeth-moss","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-margaret-atwood","15":"tag-the-handmaids-tale","16":"tag-the-testaments","17":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116269442131554626","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}