Key Points

The Testaments sequel explores cracks forming in Gilead's patriarchal regime.
Focus shifts to June's daughter, Hannah, and to her peers' resistance to totalitarianism.
First season streams on Hulu, with weekly episodes until May 27, 2026.

Praise be! It didn’t take long for the patriarchal dystopia of Gilead to pop back on our screens, where every woman is color-coded, and every brutal punishment enacted on their cloaked bodies is a warped misreading of the Bible. In fact, not even a year has passed between the season finale of the multi-award-winning Handmaid’s Tale and the release of its much-anticipated sequel, which has to be some sort of TV streaming record.

Gilead’s geographic presence has been weakened by fearless renegades, but its iron grip on the psyches of its residents is still mighty— even more so for those who no longer remember an America with Tinder, Uber, or The U.S. Constitution. The Handmaid’s Tale postscript recounts what it is like to grow up — and break free — from an oppressive theocratic regime. And while Gilead is the stuff of pure fiction from revered novelist Margaret Atwood, it is uncomfortably rooted in violent ideologies that exist in the real world.

What is the plot of The Testaments?

If The Handmaid’s Tale was all about the suffocating omnipotence of Gilead over its denizens and the brazen defiance of those desperate to rip it apart, then The Testaments is about what happens when those cracks finally begin to show in the gilded cage, and who manages to slip through them. Set roughly four years after the in-universe liberation of Boston in a festering Gilead, The Testaments centers on the coming-of-age story of a fierce resistance operative’s daughter and the integral role she and her peers play in toppling totalitarianism. Enraged teenagers navigating an elite “Wife School” are the backdrop of this revolution, where embroidery supplants books, and playtime at recess is replaced by taunting and torture.

Why The Testaments hits:

The Testaments is a not-so-gentle reminder of why The Handmaid’s Tale was the primary critical darling and landmark series of Hulu for nearly a decade. Even after six seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale, the sequel offers a fresh perspective on Gilead. The Testaments has new sets, new faces, and new crises to untangle, but also retains the harrowing, cinematic visuals and the sly, doublespeak dialogue that fans have come to expect from the franchise. There’s also an unmistakable undercurrent of hope in The Testaments for the future of a young generation that has only ever known subjugation and surveillance, a marked contrast to the pervasive bleakness of its predecessor, making for an even more tantalizing watch for audiences. Justice is about to be served in Gilead, and it’s going to be sinfully delicious.

Who shines in The Testaments?

Returning to the fold is ultimate scene-stealer Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne, the protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale, who still has her rebel streak intact in The Testaments and is machinating all sorts of proverbial and literal fire and brimstone to rain on Gilead. Although her cameos have been brief so far in the series’ first three episodes, Moss’ steely, blue-eyed thousand-yard stare is still a main character in and of itself. She soars as one-half of the emotional anchor of this narrative. Beneath the iconic monochrome costumes and the gratuitous violence and the holier-than-thou hypocrisy is a story about a woman, separated from her daughter and subjected to reproductive slavery, desperate to regain her freedom and agency as a human and as a mother.

But The Testaments isn’t just the continuation of June’s story; it’s also the start of her daughter Hannah’s (aka Agnes MacKenzie), who is deftly portrayed by Chase Infiniti with the sensitivity and nuance required to tackle puberty while also taking down fascists. Infiniti embodies that second half of that narrative emotional anchor, and the character of Hannah/Agnes is in adept hands with the One Battle After Another breakout star.

Often paired alongside either Moss or Infiniti on-screen is Lucy Halliday as Daisy, the connecting link between the mother-and-daughter duo. The conspicuous young doppelgänger, whose eerie likeness to June the show is pointedly coy about explaining, is perhaps the most surprising standout thus far in the sequel, straddling her identity as a “normal” Western teenager and the pearly-sheened facade of a pious convert in Gilead.

When and where to stream The Testaments:

The first three episodes of The Testaments, created by dystopia genre vet Bruce Miller (The 100, The Handmaid’s Tale), are available to stream now on Hulu. Subsequent episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays, with Episode 4 coming on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. The 10-episode series will conclude its first season on May 27th— which is, coincidentally, also the first anniversary of The Handmaid’s Tale’s finale.

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Saturday Streaming Rec: Chase Infiniti and Elisabeth Moss Take Down Fascists on Hulu