{"id":505647,"date":"2026-05-27T19:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T19:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/505647\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T19:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T19:29:13","slug":"the-testaments-finale-elisabeth-moss-on-june-and-hannah-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/505647\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Testaments’ Finale: Elisabeth Moss on June and Hannah, Season 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from The Testaments<\/a> season one finale, \u201cSecateurs.\u201d]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tElisabeth Moss<\/a> knows how to keep a secret.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the The Handmaid\u2019s Tale <\/a>sequel series, The Testaments, was announced, everyone wanted to know if she would be reprising her starring character, June Osborne. Viewers didn\u2019t get the answer until The Testaments premiered, and the Mayday resistance fighter made her epic return. But Moss can now finally speak freely \u2014 and she says that June was always going to be in the sequel.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe most important thing was that the overall idea of how Handmaid\u2019s ended dovetailed into The Testaments and that it made sense,\u201d Moss, an executive producer on both series (and director on the flagship), tells The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cI\u2019ve said this since season one of Handmaid\u2019s \u2014 but June\u2019s story is never over until she makes sure that Hannah is safe. That\u2019s all. That\u2019s the end of it. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHannah is the daughter who was stolen from June by Gilead to launch this TV franchise. June and Hannah didn\u2019t reunite at the end of The Handmaid\u2019s Tale \u2014 and now with the release of Wednesday\u2019s finale, viewers see that they also don\u2019t reunite at the end of season one of The Testaments. Moss expects the fans to react: \u201cI get it,\u201d she says. \u201cI would like them to get back together, too. But I do think there is a way of getting there that where, if we\u2019re going to do it, we\u2019re doing to do it in the right way.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tBut the season one finale of the follow-up series does reveal to Hannah \u2014 who was renamed Agnes in Gilead \u2014 who her mother really is. Agnes, played by Chase Infiniti<\/a>, is told by her friend Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a resistance spy for June, who her real mother is, and it kickstarts an awakening that will see Agnes joining the fight with her friends and Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd<\/a>) as the show continues. What exactly that will look like is what creator Bruce Miller<\/a> and his writers are currently figuring out, as they\u2019re now in the writers room for the already renewed second season of Hulu<\/a>\u2018s hit series, adapted from Margaret Atwood<\/a>\u2018s sequel novel of the same name.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Moss unpacks all of the biggest burning questions from the season one finale, \u201cSecateurs,\u201d which was written by Miller, along with Maya Goldsmith and Gianna Sobol, and directed by frequent franchise helmer Mike Barker.\u00a0Did Moss have any hesitations returning as June, and will June factor as much in the story for season two? What did June really know about where Hannah was in Gilead, and has she been working in cahoots with Aunt Lydia? Does Moss hope Testaments runs as long as Handmaid\u2019s, and what will Hannah\u2019s awakening look like in season two? Moss talks all that and more, below, making one thing crystal clear: \u201cAs long as there\u2019s a Gilead, she\u2019s never going to stop fighting,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen The Testaments launched, I spoke with creator Bruce Miller<\/a> about you reprising June, and he basically said there was never The Testaments without June and Lizzie Moss. Since June isn\u2019t retired from the resistance movement or the fight to get her daughter back, of course she was always going to be apart of this show. But your onscreen role was a well-kept secret until the show premiered, so at what point when you were making The Handmaid\u2019s Tale did it become a reality that you were going to reprise June?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tSo, I was originally supposed to direct the beginning of The Testaments, but that was back when the idea was first coming together. When I got the job to direct the first two and the last two episodes of The Handmaid\u2019s Tale with my newborn,<\/a> it became apparent that it was not going to necessarily be the greatest idea for me to also try to direct three episodes of The Testaments. (Laughs.) We all kind of decided, \u201cLet\u2019s focus on Handmaid\u2019s,\u201d and we brought in the beautiful Mike Barker [to direct Testaments]. It was somewhere in that time period [that we decided I would return as June].<\/p>\n

\n\tThis show is so close to the bone for me, both professionally and personally, that sometimes it\u2019s very difficult to distinguish moments in time. I was so immersed in Handmaid\u2019s for 365 days a year, between prep, production and post. We always knew that June was going to be in it. That was no question. When and how? I think that was decided a few months before I shot it, when we got the scripts and we knew exactly what the show was going to be.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou have your hands all over June; you\u2019re such a close collaborator with Bruce. What was most important to you about June coming back? She had this superhero-like reveal in the premiere<\/a> and has remained a mentor to Daisy (Lucy Halliday) <\/a>throughout the season. How did you land on how much we would see June, and what role she would play in this new Gilead era?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThe most important thing became how Handmaid\u2019s ended<\/a>, and how that dovetails into June being in The Testaments, because they really went hand in hand. We didn\u2019t officially know how Handmaid\u2019s was going to end from Bruce and his writers room<\/a> until while we were shooting that final season.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut there was an idea. I had known for years from Bruce that June wasn\u2019t going to get Hannah out [at the end of The Handmaid\u2019s Tale]. I knew that\u2019s what was going to happen. And then Margaret Atwood wrote the sequel [novel], and Hannah didn\u2019t get out. We were like, \u201cOkay, cool. That\u2019s confirmed.\u201d So I knew for a while that wasn\u2019t going to happen. It was always very funny when people were like, \u201cIs Hannah going to get out at the end of Handmaid\u2019s?\u201d I was like, \u201cGuys, I don\u2019t want to spoil anything for you, but there\u2019s a whole other book that Margaret Atwood wrote, and it\u2019s out there. I\u2019m not being cagey. You can go read it if you like!\u201d <\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tAgnes (Chase Infiniti) after learning that her real mother is June (Elisabeth Moss), and that she is Hannah.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney\/Russ Martin)<\/p>\n

\n\tHow that show ended directly affected how we were going to be able to bring June in for The Testaments, so the most important thing for me was that the two things went together \u2014\u00a0that we could end Handmaid\u2019s in a way that made sense for that show, but also made sense for The Testaments, which is an incredible gift and tricky with the audience.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor a very long time, like you said, we kept that secret shockingly well. I actually don\u2019t even know how. Of course, there were things put in place. We were very careful about what was on the call sheets. But it just didn\u2019t get out. And it was difficult at times to not be able to tell the fans, \u201cGuys, it\u2019s okay. June\u2019s story is so not over. The Handmaid\u2019s ending isn\u2019t really even an ending.\u201d It was hard not to be able to share that, but I knew and Bruce knew that June\u2019s story was not just going to continue in a way of her being in one scene [of The Testaments]. We knew that I was going to have multiple episodes, and that there was going to be an arc and a larger plan for June with The Testaments.<\/p>\n

\n\tBruce would not tell me your code name in the script, are you allowed to tell me what it was in The Testaments? He said you were \u201cRocket Woman\u201d in Handmaid\u2019s.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThat was one season, and that one was not my favorite. (Laughs.) We had a different alias every season. What was it for The Testaments? I\u2019m hesitant to tell you, because if I tell you, I could never use it again! So I\u2019m glad he didn\u2019t tell you. (Laughs.) But let me just say that I tend to go super old school, like classic films or\u00a0actors or characters where you\u2019re going to have a film knowledge to catch it. I\u2019m not sure a lot of people did!<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you filmed your June premiere reveal where we see you again for the first time, how long had it been since you finished the Handmaid\u2019s finale?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tAbout two months. I think we wrapped Handmaid\u2019s mid-February and I was shooting that in April.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was it like to play her again in The Testaments, since she is different?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYou think? Tell me. I\u2019m curious.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe\u2019s all-knowing and wise. She knows so much more than everybody else in the show, and that felt different.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s really cool to hear. I\u2019m glad that it felt different. I think it did feel different [playing her again]. It felt like this combination of being able to slip into the most comfortable pair of your favorite sweatpants, just how homey and cozy that feels. That\u2019s like playing June again, even after just a short time. There\u2019s no point in doing it unless we\u2019re going to be able to continue developing her story and developing her as a character, although I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything wrong with playing your hits. [Handmaid\u2019s Tale star] Bradley Whitford and I talk about that a lot. How sometimes it\u2019s totally cool to just play the hits! Sometimes that\u2019s what works. But we did want to make sure that June does have a purpose for being there and that it isn\u2019t just a stunt. I\u2019m also helping to forward the show.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt also felt different in the sense of half the crew being different. It was strange to very quickly after Handmaid\u2019s, where you\u2019re with a crew you worked with for many years, come back and be playing the same character where some of the people are the same and you have that consistency, but then there are new faces. That took a little getting used to, but wasn\u2019t a bad thing. A little change can sometimes be helpful in bringing out something that might be a little bit different in you.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tJune (Elisabeth Moss) surprised viewers with her return in\u00a0The Testaments\u00a0premiere; she\u2019s here meeting with Daisy (Lucy Halliday) in the season one finale.<\/p>\n

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

\n\tIn this finale, we get this scene between June and Daisy where June hears Agnes\u2019 (Chase Infiniti) name and realizes, for the first time, that Daisy has been with her daughter this whole time. One of the big questions I had going into this show was, does June know Agnes is in Gilead with Daisy? And does June know Aunt Lydia\u2019s (Ann Dowd) also there? Is June working with Lydia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tRight.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou guys kept that all very close to the vest, and we still aren\u2019t sure what she knows about Lydia. What were your conversations with Bruce about how you wanted to handle those questions, and what you wanted viewers to think in terms of what June knows about who is on the other end of her resistance plan with Daisy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI talked to Bruce extensively about the Agnes part, and whether or not she knows that Hannah is there \u2014 I can\u2019t say \u201cAgnes,\u201d it goes against everything I believe in! You can call her Agnes, I\u2019m just not allowed to. (Laughs.) But we went back and forth a lot on that issue, honestly. I was like, \u201cI don\u2019t know, I feel like she should know, why wouldn\u2019t she know? She knows everything.\u201d Like you said, she\u2019s all-knowing, she\u2019s the most powerful person in the resistance. How could she not know that? And he made a very convincing argument, and he was 100 percent right.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the best written moments in that scene, in my opinion, is the where you get to see June hear it. It\u2019s always better to see on camera if the character has something happen to them, or if they realize something. We get to see her realize and discover where exactly Agnes is on camera. If we had gone with her being completely all-knowing, we would have been robbed at that moment. That moment is so moving when she realizes, and drops her tough exterior. She drops her composure, and you just see her as a mom. She\u2019s nothing but a mom all of a sudden, not a resistance fighter. June is a mom who wants to get her daughter to safety.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo I think Bruce did absolutely the right thing. What we decided on was that she knows Hannah\u2019s Gilead name is Agnes MacKenzie. She has an idea of where she is, but I don\u2019t think she knew exactly where she was. She doesn\u2019t necessarily know Daisy knows her and is friends with her. In my opinion, she just has her suspicions. I think we have room to add or subtract how much she knew, but she doesn\u2019t have it 100 percent confirmed [until that moment].<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd what about Lydia? Do you think June knows, or now is thinking, that Hannah might be with Lydia? Are they in cahoots after how Handmaid\u2019s Tale ended between June and Lydia<\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThat one, I can\u2019t answer!<\/p>\n

\n\tI like that you can\u2019t answer, because I think I\u2019m on the right track by asking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI think that there\u2019s room there as well. And to be honest, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s 100 percent decided on exactly how much and if they\u2019re talking. I don\u2019t have the answers to [yet], but judging by how Handmaid\u2019s ended and the last moment that June and Lydia had, I love Ann Dowd\u2019s reaction when Chase [as Agnes] tells her [about June]. You see this panic for a second of Lydia thinking, \u201cWhy is she bringing up June, and why does she know her? And what does she think?\u201d And then Chase does this incredible job of immediately being like, \u201cNo, no, it\u2019s cool.\u201d They\u2019re kind of talking in code and you\u2019re like, \u201cWhat is the code? What are you covering? What\u2019s happening?!\u201d There\u2019s a very purposeful ambiguity there.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tAgnes (Infiniti) with Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd).<\/p>\n

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

\n\tYou mentioned this earlier, how viewers wanted a June and Hannah reunion at the end of Handmaid\u2019s Tale, and didn\u2019t get it. Now we\u2019re at the end of season one of The Testaments and we still don\u2019t see them reunited. But the finale does circle back to when we saw Agnes writing her name (\u201cHannah\u201d), and now she\u2019s having this awakening about who her mother really is. That\u2019s a huge callback, but it\u2019s not a reunion. Are you prepared for the fan reaction?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI do expect people, absolutely, to have that reaction. I want them too. Like I said, she\u2019s never gonna stop. So yes, 100 percent, I get it. I get that\u2019s what we want. I like I would like it, too. I don\u2019t disagree! (Laughs.) I would like them to get back together. But I do think there is a way of getting there that where, if we\u2019re going to do it, we\u2019re doing to do it in the right way. <\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re also watching how characters develop and how actors develop their characters, and that\u2019s informing what\u2019s about to happen. Chase and Lucy are bringing things to their characters where you\u2019re going, \u201cI want to see more of that. I want to see more of them together.\u201d All of that goes into the conversation as well. But [Mike] Barker really wanted to show the Hannah writing. That was something he really responded to, and he really wanted to make sure that we had that in the finale. That callback was so important. So Bruce put it in, but I remember that was something Barker really wanted.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat about your onscreen role in season two? Will it be similar, more or less than season one?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know yet. We\u2019re still getting the scripts and figuring that out, so there\u2019s a lot that hasn\u2019t been really figured out yet. That\u2019s the honest truth, because it\u2019s super early days. We just got our pick up [for season two]<\/a>, so it\u2019s all still being explored. But, if I did know, I wouldn\u2019t be able to tell you anyway!<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course you can\u2019t! (Laughs.) Are you able to speak to the larger vision for the show? Handmaid\u2019s Tale was long running, which we don\u2019t see as much these days. Do you hope The Testaments runs as long?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s always the dream and the hope. You want to be continuing to get to tell these stories. You want to be continuing to get to play with these actors, directors and writers. I feel so close to June. The core of who she is as a woman, as a mom and as a friend, I feel very, very close to her. I would never want to stop playing her. So for me, yes. <\/strong>As long as there\u2019s a Gilead, she\u2019s never going to stop fighting. There has to be so much more story that we can explore, and it\u2019s so cool that now we have this next generation of actors to explore it through. It gives it this new life and energy. As a woman who is not 25, it\u2019s so exciting and fantastic to get to watch and play with these younger actors and get inspired by them.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you plan to direct in season two?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI was supposed to direct on season one, but that was completely out of the question because of the ending of Handmaid\u2019s and then I was starting Imperfect Women for Apple<\/a> in May, which couldn\u2019t push, so I was not able to direct on season one. That feels so strange to me that I didn\u2019t get to direct, because I am so close to that world. And I don\u2019t mean just the onscreen world, but also behind the scenes with the crew members. That whole way of making the show in Toronto with the incredible crew I\u2019ve worked with for over a decade now \u2026 it was very strange to not direct in season one. So you can take that and apply it to how I would feel about season two, where I am potentially more available as well.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tDaisy (Lucy Halliday), Agnes (Infiniti) and Shu (Rowan Blanchard) in the final moment of season one.<\/p>\n

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

\n\tThe final scene of this season felt like you \u2014 with Agnes, Daisy and Shu\u2019s (Rowan Blanchard) empowering walk to Alt J\u2019s \u201cHunger of the Pine\u201d ushering in the next generation of resistance fighters for season two. So it seems you and Mike Barker are in sync.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMike and Dana Reed and Jane Campion, the OG, are the directors who made me want to be a director. Anytime I\u2019m working with any of them it\u2019s so symbiotic. So getting to do that [June and Daisy finale] scene on that dock was such a magical, magical night. It really was so special and such a beautiful scene. Thank you, Bruce!<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Testaments is now streaming all of season one on Hulu, and will return for season two. Read THR<\/a>\u2018s show coverage here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from The Testaments season one finale, \u201cSecateurs.\u201d] Elisabeth Moss knows how to keep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[118702,118703,47844,18,63569,117,13930,19,17,8270,118704,118705,128],"class_list":["post-505647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ann-dowd","tag-bruce-miller","tag-chase-infiniti","tag-eire","tag-elisabeth-moss","tag-entertainment","tag-hulu","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-margaret-atwood","tag-the-handmaids-tale","tag-the-testaments","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116648200179545624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505647","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=505647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}