SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the first three episodes of “The Testaments,” now streaming on Hulu.
Bruce Miller is plunging back into the world of Gilead — and he’s bringing an old friend with him.
Miller, the Emmy-winning creator of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” is now serving the same role with “The Testaments,” following an entirely different corner of Margaret Atwood’s theocratic universe. But, as the series’ first three episodes make clear, even though we’re not following the Handmaids anymore, Elisabeth Moss’ rebel June is still a central part of the proceedings, working as a spy for Mayday to help bring down another corner of the regime.
“The Testaments” is a TV spinoff based on a literary spinoff. Following the launch of Miller’s “Handmaid’s Tale” on Hulu in 2017, Atwood — author of the 1985 source novel — was inspired to continue her story. Her book, and the series, center on three characters in Gilead’s education system: Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), the onetime domineering force in the lives of the kidnapped sex slaves known as Handmaids, now leads a school for “Plums,” the teen daughters of Gilead’s elite. Among these teens is Agnes (Chase Infiniti, of “One Battle After Another”), raised from the time of her rehoming in early childhood to be a true believer in Gilead’s teachings. She’s stalked by growing doubts, however, and by the question of her birth mother’s true identity. (Allusions throughout point us to the conclusion that Agnes is, in fact, June’s much-missed daughter Hannah — seized, renamed and indoctrinated.) And entering the premises as a double agent is Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a Canadian posing as a would-be refugee to Gilead in order to help bring it down from the inside.
Lucy Halliday, Chase Infiniti
Courtesy of Disney/Russ Martin
Where the early going of “The Handmaid’s Tale” had a close focus on June’s discontent, confusion and rage, “The Testaments” splits its attention among these three — but still makes room, in June’s cameo appearances in the first and third episodes, for some of that old anger. Miller spoke in detail about the three episode-premiere, including about the decision to bring June back, Aunt Lydia’s evolving loyalties and the ways in which producing a “Handmaid’s” spinoff in a once-again-turbulent political climate colored the storytelling.
I was lucky enough to interview Elisabeth Moss before the finale of “The Handmaid’s Tale” last year. I’d seen the last episode, and we talked about how your options for writing the finale were somewhat constrained based on what happens in the novel “The Testaments,” which meant that in that timeline, June couldn’t reunite with her daughter Hannah. How obligated did you feel to follow what Margaret Atwood wrote?
It’s an adaptation, so I don’t feel obliged to follow. The lesson I learned in “The Handmaid’s Tale” was that if I have a question about putting something in that was in the book, but I didn’t quite understand it — put it in the show. Those are the most interesting things, the things that I didn’t quite get. So it’s not out of fealty to Margaret. It’s out of fealty to the storyteller behind the books. When in doubt, stay with Margartet.
So I tried very hard in “The Testaments” not to make changes if I didn’t have to. I had to make a few changes, because of the timeline, that were very difficult to make, in terms of who is what character. [Teen double agent] Daisy is not Nicole [June’s second biological daughter], as she is in the book, because the timing just didn’t work out.
I wanted to talk about June coming back. It’s not just the one-shot cameo in the premiere — she’s all over the third episode. What went into deciding you weren’t done with this character?
On a very basic level, Lizzie’s been my creative partner since the very beginning of this process. To do it without her as a producing partner would be strange.
But when you get to the end of “Handmaid’s Tale,” June has lots of victories and does some incredible things and loses a lot of things — but there are some untied strings. Will she ever feel her daughter is somewhere safe, whether with her or somewhere else? In the novel, June is just offscreen, pulling strings.
But because you’ve seen “Handmaid’s Tale,” you know what it means for her to act the way she is — how hard it is for her to be patient. And when you start seeing bits of June in Agnes, you know what that means: That might means she is going to get herself in huge fucking trouble.
Elisabeth Moss, Lucy Halliday
Courtesy of Disney/Steve Wilkie
Given how much the fight for Hannah defines June’s identity, will we see more of her as the series continues?
Some of it is practical, in terms of Lizzie’s busy schedule. I would love to have her in more, but I think that since the character is exerting so much pressure in this story, we have the chance to show her — or if we can’t show her, because we can’t get her, we can feel it through Daisy and Agnes.
“The Testaments” should live on its own — you shouldn’t have to have seen “The Handmaid’s Tale” at all. And I want June to be a cumulative character and accumulate what she’s seen and done up until now. She knows how old Agnes is, and she knows that what she’s going to do is a very different thing than when she was going to grab her and run.
Right — if she’d been able to rescue Hannah in early childhood, she could have just resumed being Hannah’s mother. But now she’d be dealing with a teenager who has been inculcated in the politics of Gilead for so much of her life.
You see it in Daisy. It takes Daisy a long time to realize that these girls haven’t been smacked over the head and injected with Gilead. They’re slowly, over time, taught it in a way that’s the kindest and best way to teach them. And it’s tied up with some good things. It’s tied up with their loyalty to each other, and to the fact that they have a really strong moral compass, whether or not it’s pointed in the right direction. It’s interesting that Daisy thinks of them as boobs. They’re really not. They’re 15-year-old girls who are finding a way to integrate Gilead into a real 15-year-old worldview, which is what’s going to screw Gilead. Because they’re not adopting Gilead, they’re adapting Gilead.
Courtesy of Disney
It’s interesting seeing Ann Dowd return as Aunt Lydia, especially given that by the time “The Handmaid’s Tale” ended, Aunt Lydia had soured on the Gilead regime. What did bringing the character back open up for you?
The double role that Lydia plays — both encouraging an uprising and keeping control of everything — is very Lydia. She wants change, on her terms. When you see her at the end of “Handmaid’s Tale,” and you start to see the cracks that maybe she does want to change the government — when we come to her in “The Testaments,” Lydia is trying to change Gilead in her slow, methodical, careful way. And she thinks that another group of men might be good.
The girls who she thinks she’s using as pawns are about to run her over. They are not [thinking], “We’re going to reform this place and make it a little better.” They’re like, “Maybe these men should hang from the end of a rope.” Lydia is planning a rebellion with a small “r,” and she doesn’t realize she [faces] Soldiers with a capital “S.”
It’s interesting to go so far beyond what “The Handmaid’s Tale” covered — I don’t think this show features a Handmaid at all.
There are Handmaids in Agnes’ world — but, strangely, Agnes and her friends think they’re creepy. They never talk. You can’t see their faces. They walk in pairs. It’s scary.
But the sexual politics don’t change. It’s just different types of sexual slaves. They’re building them in different ways. They stole those. They’re trying to build these. And they’re going to fail on both fronts. They failed with the Handmaids, who almost brought down the whole country. And here they feel like, “Well, these are girls who grew up in Gilead. We can indoctrinate them, and they’ll be very happy in their bondage.” That’s just a comically cockeyed view of what a 15-year-old is.
Ann Dowd
Disney
The first season of “The Handmaid’s Tale” was released in the early days of Donald Trump’s presidency but produced before his election — and, obviously, is based on material written before any of this. But “The Testaments” novel was written during his presidency, and the series was made after the fall of Roe v. Wade. Did this change your approach?
I wish I remembered Season 1. The big difference for me was, in this time of difficulty and narcissistic governance, the young women are amazing and full of positive energy and are building lives that aren’t only a better version of what the patriarchy left them with but a completely new version. The approach that’s so different now is knowing young women who’ve grown up under Trump and how spirited, smart, and driven they are — how not oppressed they are letting themselves be.
That influences you, because that didn’t exist before. It helped me put my finger on a unique kind of Gilead person. They only remember Gilead. So here’s our first generation of women who grew up under Trump. Did his misogyny keep them in their place? No.
It’s a crazy coincidence that Chase Infiniti stars in this, after having been the personification of her generation’s fighting spirit in “One Battle After Another” last year.
She has the vibe of her generation. She’s a very intelligent woman, very mindful of who she is and what she’s doing. She’s also a bit older. She’s a little more confident. Some of our cast members are 18, 19 years old. She’s 25, and it’s different in terms of her being ready for her moment. I think she thinks of the younger girls as a different generation. She’s special.
Bruce Miller (second from the end) with cast and producers at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘The Testaments’ on March 31.
Courtesy of Michael Buckner/Variety
In the original series, one of the voices of Radio Free Boston was Oprah Winfrey. In “The Testaments,” Daisy listens to a similar radio host played by Stephen Colbert. I’ve always wondered: In this universe, is it the real Oprah? Is it the real Stephen Colbert? Do they exist as supporters of the resistance?
Both actors asked me that question: Whether they’re playing themselves or playing a DJ. My sense is that if you had Radio Free America, you would pick Oprah. So I think she is Oprah. And I think Stephen Colbert, because of who he is — they’ve hired Stephen Colbert to be the voice of Radio Free Boston. I think he’s a good choice as a voice of American freedom for a lot of reasons — we had a list that was one person long.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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