'The Handmaid's Tale' Spinoff 'The Testaments' Will Be Like 'Mean Girls,' Creator Teases
"The Handmaid's Tale" may be wrapping its sixth and final season on Hulu, but the world it crafted is just getting started.
A follow-up series, "The Testaments," is already on the way — and series creator Bruce Miller has promised that this time will have a very different tone.
Miller described it to Entertainment Weekly, "It's about 'Mean Girls' growing up in Gilead."
"I mean, it really is about what it's like to be young and full of energy when the country is trying to turn you into something awful, when all of a sudden they've been telling you, 'you are wonderful, you're perfect, and now do these terrible things.'"
Different Lens, Same World
"The Handmaid's Tale" follows the story of June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss), a handmaid-turned-rebel in the totalitarian nightmare of Gilead, while "The Testaments" continues the story 15 years later. The spinoff, which comes from Margaret Atwood's 2019 sequel novel of the same name, centers on three female voices: Aunt Lydia and June's daughters Agnes and Daisy (Hannah and Nichole in the series).
Miller said of "The Handmaid's Tale" that it "is about the life of a handmaid."
"This woman who was pulled from her life and pushed to the absolute bottom in Gilead and told she was worthless. She wasn't even a woman anymore, she was just a uterus, and seeing her fight back and keep her humanity."
In contrast, "The Testaments" narrates the perspective of the "top" of Gilead society.
"This is about Hannah or Agnes, who's the daughter of a high commander who is the top of the food chain for women in Gilead, and it's still awful," Miller said. "That's what we find out — that being on the top of a food chain in a misogynistic society doesn't make it any better. It just puts more of a target on your head."
Teen Power and Unexpected Twists
Miller teased a more youthful, rebellious spirit as well, while the stakes are just as high in The Testaments as they were in The Handmaid's Tale.
"Being young, and the fun and energy of being young, and the snarkiness and the power of being 14-15 years old, that is very much there," he said.
"It's really interesting and fascinating and so exciting to be looking at the younger women in Gilead, and that energy, and those people who are being told they have all of this power, only to have that power taken away," he added. "You're on the top of the heap, except you are submissive to your husband. It's such a fascinating show."
Miller added that the new series itself was "crafted to be independent."
"I didn't want 'Testaments' to dictate 'Handmaid's Tale', and I didn't want 'Handmaid's Tale' to dictate 'Testaments,'" he said. "Some of the characters overlap, but it's about a different world."
The spinoff is still in development, but Miller shared that it's "coming together so beautifully" and will include "all sorts of amazing surprises from all different worlds."
No official premiere date has been announced.
