Spoilers for The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments ahead.
Spring has sprung, and a new dystopian chapter of The Handmaid's Tale universe is about to drop on Disney+. Treats all around.
New TV series The Testaments – starring One Battle After Another star Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday – is adapted from Margaret Atwood's sequel novel to The Handmaid's Tale, which was released back in 2019. Handmaid's Tale star Elisabeth Moss is also an executive producer on the project.
So do you need to have watched the entirety of The Handmaid's Tale – ie, all six seasons – to understand The Testaments? In short, no. The series is its own story, and differs from the source material in many ways. But it helps, in order to understand all the underlying political movements and connections between the key characters.
"The Testaments is following a different perspective in Gilead," the series' star Lucy Halliday has said of how it differs from its forerunner. "We're looking at the lives of these very privileged – the members of the higher echelon of the Gilead society – and those girls aren't akin to that universe that was in The Handmaid’s Tale because they're in this bubble.
“And so… the extent of what was showcased in The Handmaid's Tale isn't present within The Testaments, because we're following a different path, and we've got these new characters and these new stories.” While it is "still shocking and harrowing", Halliday says, "there's never a handmaid present in The Testaments".
What is The Testaments about?
Set over a decade after the final events of The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments follows the story of a group of young women at Aunt Lydia's premarital preparatory academy, Agnes (Chase Infiniti) and Daisy (Lucy Halliday). So we don't see one handmaid in the entirety of the series – this is all about the more privileged women in Gilead and their story.
As Agnes, Daisy and their peers encounter their forays into womanhood, and what that looks like for them coming of age inside the walls of the Gilead regime.
Links between The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments
Here are some key characters, elements and plotlines of The Handmaid's Tale to look out for in The Testaments.
A familiar face from The Handmaid's Tale, Aunt Lydia (played by Ann Dowd) returns for The Testaments. This makes sense, as a certain amount of Atwood's novel is told from her perspective. While she is something of an antagonist in The Handmaid's Tale, enforcing the harmful doctrine of Gilead and controlling the handmaids at every turn, we see more of Aunt Lydia's life and choices in The Testaments.
Aunt Lydia heads up the preparatory school where most of The Testaments takes place, described by the show's synopsis as "a place where obedience is instilled brutally and always with divine justification". We also get a fair amount of insight into Aunt Lydia's experience when the Gilead revolution took place, where she stood politically and what it took for her to survive at the beginning of the new regime. Again, it's not crucial, but already being aware of Aunt Lydia's story from The Handmaid's Tale will increase the impact of her scenes in The Testaments.
Just like in The Handmaid's Tale, we see the kidnapping and harm of those who are viewed as rebels or harmful to the Gilead movement and regime by the Eyes. We also see the dominant nature of the Commanders and the subservient fates of the wives.
June's heartbreaking decision to leave her daughter Hannah behind in Gilead at the end of The Handmaid's Tale is integral to the story of The Testaments. At the risk of trying not to reveal too much at once for those who haven't read the book or watched all of the series, we see how Hannah has adjusted to living within Gilead's regime, and is shown bonding with a key new character new to Gilead, making her question her own identity and dreams.
Again, knowing June's story and her connection to The Testaments enrichens the viewing experience for sure, but the series can arguably stand on its own merit in its highlighting of the importance of girlhood, women's rights and female empowerment.
The Testaments is available to watch on Disney+ from 8 April.
