Almost a year after Hulu’s critically acclaimed series The Handmaid’s Tale came to a close, fans are back in the dystopian society of the Republic of Gilead with the new series, The Testaments.
Set 15 years after the fiery end of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel, centers on a group of teenage girls preparing to become wives to the society’s most powerful men.
Raised entirely inside Gilead, the girls build their identities within the regime’s rigid hierarchy. The result is a story of power, survival, friendship, and the slow discovery of how deeply wrong their world really is.
A new generation within the walls of Gilead
The new series features an ensemble of familiar Gilead faces and franchise newcomers, including One Battle After Another star Chase Infiniti as Agnes, one of the main narrators.
“She has such a closed world view…she’s never gone anywhere by herself,” Infiniti told Blavity’s Shadow and Act in a recent interview regarding her character never knowing anything outside of Gilead.
That isolation drives the show’s premise, illustrating how Gilead shapes the girls to embrace their purpose before they can question it. As the adopted daughter of elite residents Commander Kyle and his wife Tabitha, Agnes is raised not to challenge the regime, grooming her for servitude and submission.
However, when Agnes is assigned to look after a new girl in Gilead, Daisy, her world turns upside down, forcing her to question everything she knows.
Daisy, played by Lucy Halliday, saw her life as a normal teenager in Toronto upended when she was displaced into Gilead. As the only girl who remembers life outside the oppressive society, she brings a “fire” that Halliday channels vividly.
“Daisy is definitely having to assimilate to this new place she’s in, but I never wanted to lose the fire she had in Toronto or completely wipe her of that personality, ’cause that person still exists within her,” Halliday said.
She added, “There was definitely a balance of trying to, you know, showcase both the moments of levity or gutsiness that she demonstrates when in Gilead.”
As the series unfolds, Daisy’s presence at Aunt Lydia’s elite preparatory school goes beyond learning the regime’s ways.
Power struggles and friendships
Another central theme of The Testaments is the multiple narratives revealing power struggles among the girls. Facing Gilead’s harsh expectations, they forge intricate rivalries and alliances, carving out identities amid oppression. The struggle plays out in overt actions, rebellion, and secrecy.
“I think a lot of that is inherent because I remember in high school there were those friend groups,” Infiniti said regarding the functions of friendship the show explores.
She continued, “When you’re in a friend group, you have those dynamics, it could even be as simple as this is the friend who’s definitely the funniest in the group. This is the friend who’s kind of the group’s caregiver. And I think that in Gilead, it’s taken that form to the extreme.”
The friend group also includes Becca, played by Mattea Conforti—a girl from humble beginnings who begins questioning the system she once craved—and Rowan Blanchard as Shunammite, a witty teen from a prominent Gilead family whose status grants her respect and power among peers.
“She has a lot of her own internal battles and struggles that she’s dealing with right outta the gate from episode one. So Becca finds her place within her friendships,” Conforti said of her character.
Blanchard noted viewers will see her character “soften up” throughout the series because of these strong relationships.
Fandom for younger generations
The actresses are primed for the fandom sure to follow, hoping viewers embrace The Testaments as they did The Handmaid’s Tale—especially younger generations.
“That would be our goal, honestly, to have people watch the show and leave it with that feeling and sense of their own power to go in, enact change in their own communities and within their own communities,” Halliday said.
The Testaments is now streaming on Hulu.