Blessed be the fruit.
Craig Erwich, Hulu's SVP of Scripted Originals, offered an update on The Handmaid's Tale spinoff, The Testaments, at the streaming service's Television Critics Association winter press tour on Friday, sharing that the creative team is hard at work.
"We've acquired the rights to The Testaments, which ... is an incredible novel," Erwich said. "Ultimately, [Handmaid's creator] Bruce [Miller], [executive producer] Warren [Littlefield] and [Elisabeth Moss] are trying to figure out what is the best way to take the real estate and the creative landscape of that novel and weave it into The Handmaid's Tale and where it fits in the universe. But we're thrilled to have Margaret [Atwood's] next work."
It was announced in September that Hulu and MGM were developing a Handmaid's Tale sequel series, based on Atwood's follow-up, The Testaments. The novel was published in September.
The Testaments is set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, and is narrated by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), as well as Agnes, a young woman living in Gilead; and Daisy, a young woman living in Canada.
Handmaid's Tale fans will recognize Agnes as June's (Moss) first daughter, Hannah, who was renamed after they were captured and is currently being raised by Commander MacKenzie and his wife. June’s other daughter, Nichole, who was thought to belong to Commander Waterford and Serena (Joseph Fiennes and Yvonne Strahovski, respectively) under Gilead’s ritual, is the one June sent with Emily (Alexis Bledel) across the border to Canada.
Dowd told Time that she would love to bring Lydia’s journey to life onscreen. “It would be thrilling to watch Lydia get the job done. I guess you and I are allowed to talk about it because we’ve read it,” she shared.
Season four of Handmaid's Tale premieres April 12 on Hulu.
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