You don’t spend toime with Handmaids in The Testaments, Hulu’s spinoff of the award-winning The Handmaid’s Tale — and that was a very deliberate decision by showrunner Bruce Miller.
Margaret Atwood wrote the novel The Handmaid’s Tale in 1985, and wrote the sequel novel in 2019 after she was inspired by her time on the Toronto set of The Handmaid’s Tale series.
The new story, set 15 years after the original, follows Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), Agnes (Chase Infiniti) and Daisy (Lucy Halliday), and takes place at Aunt Lydia’s elite preparatory school for future wives.
“I wanted it to feel like Gilead in the beautiful ways and the scary ways, but the beautiful ways proctor these characters’ world,” Miller says. “For these girls at the very top of society, they want everything to look peaceful and beautiful.”
Handmaids still exist in this world, but the young women at Aunt Lydia’s school consider them strange: After all, they walk in groups, you never see their faces, and they don’t talk.
“It’s not even their fertility that freaks them out, it’s the fact that Gilead has made them wear these weird clothes and separated them from each other,” Miller explains. “It’s so sad, because they’re on exactly the same path, to be sexual slaves.”
Agnes, as viewers know, is the daughter of Handmaid’s June (Elisabeth Moss), while Daisy sees June as a mother-like figure. The first four episodes alternate between the characters’ POVs with narration that juxtaposes how they each see this world.
“Agnes wouldn’t look down the barrel of a camera,” Miller says. “She’s not that person, she has been raised in Gilead. She would look down. But Daisy is straight down the camera. She’s like a bulldog trying to be quiet in Gilead, but boy, is it hard for her to be quiet in Gilead.”
The Testaments Showrunner Bruce Miller on Understanding the Dangers Women Feel
Getting Moss, an executive producer on the series, to reappear as June was essential — but challenging given her packed schedule. Miller tried to keep production as flexible as possible to incorporate June back into the story.
Another challenge: Getting into the head of a 15-year-old girl. Miller admits it was a deficit he needed to fulfill, and he didn’t want to make any guesses about how things like getting your period for the first time would feel. So, he focused on how the men in the story miss important things, and also worked closely with the actors, female writers and Atwood to convey the most accurate and real experiences possible.
“I’m constantly shocked by what women have to go through and deal with every day,” he says, adding that he grew up with three sisters, has a lot of women in his life, and tries not to make generalizations or assumptions.
“It’s hard to get your head around the dangers women feel. It’s certainly been a revelation to me,” he continues. “I hope my dumb, dunderheaded innocence allows me to lean on real facts and be specific to the characters. I hope by doing that I’m not overstepping my bounds or making statements about the entire group of women in this universe.”
The Testaments will also reveal more about Aunt Lydia, which means fans will see much more of the Emmy-winning Dowd.
“Aunt Lydia is the rudder between the two worlds, and Ann is such a strong actor and a strong leader for the cast,” Miller says. “We didn’t need to introduce her. You already knew who she was. Plus she’s scarier when she’s not there.”
The Testaments is now streaming on Hulu.
Main image: Chase Infiniti as Agnes, left, and Lucy Halliday as Daisy in The Testaments. Courtesy of Hulu