Eight years after The Handmaid’s Tale first introduced us to the horrors of Gilead, its long-awaited sequel has finally arrived — and it is already being called one of the year’s most essential television events. The Testaments, based on Margaret Atwood‘s 2019 Booker Prize-winning novel, premiered on Hulu on April 8, 2026 with its first three episodes. New episodes drop weekly every Wednesday through May 27.

Returning to Gilead — Through New Eyes

Where The Handmaid’s Tale was June Osborne‘s story, The Testaments belongs to the next generation. The series follows two young women navigating very different corners of Gilead’s world. Agnes — played by Chase Infiniti and known to Handmaid’s Tale viewers as Hannah Bankole, June’s daughter — is dutiful, pious, and at the top of the social hierarchy inside Gilead, being groomed at Aunt Lydia‘s elite preparatory school for future wives. Daisy (Lucy Halliday) is her counterpart: a new arrival from beyond Gilead’s borders, a convert navigating an alien world she never chose. As their bond deepens, it becomes the catalyst for something that will shake the foundations of everything around them.

Ann Dowd Returns as Aunt Lydia

The most electrifying element of The Testaments is the expanded role of Aunt Lydia, reprised by the incomparable Ann Dowd. In Atwood’s novel — and in this adaptation — Aunt Lydia is no longer simply the enforcerof Gilead’s cruelties. She is a far more complicated, even subversive figure, and Dowd’s performance has already drawn widespread acclaim for revealing new, unsettling dimensions of a character audiences thought they knew.

The Full Cast

Alongside Dowd, Infiniti, and Halliday, the cast includes Rowan Blanchard as Shunammite, Mattea Conforti as Becka, Amy Seimetz, Mabel Li, Brad Alexander, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Eva Foote, Isolde Ardies, and Shechinah Mpumlwana.

The Creative Team

Bruce Miller — who created and showran The Handmaid’s Tale for its entire run — returns to shepherd this sequel. Among the executive producers is Elisabeth Moss, who starred as June in the original series and brings her deep understanding of Gilead’s world to the production. Directors include Mike Barker (first three episodes and the finale), Shana Stein, Quyen Tran, and Jet Wilkinson.

What the Critics Are Saying

Variety called it “a stunning follow-up,” praising its timely examination of privilege and complicity. The series has been celebrated for standing powerfully on its own even for viewers new to the Handmaid’s Tale universe.

Episode Schedule and How to Watch

The Testaments consists of 10 episodes, with new installments dropping every Wednesday on Hulu. The season finale arrives May 27, 2026. Internationally, the series streams on Disney+.