With The Handmaid’s Tale wrapping up after six seasons, fans are now looking forward to sequel series The Testaments. It will have a new cast aside from Ann Dowd’s returning Aunt Lydia, but the creative forces behind both shows teased earlier this week that some other familiar faces could return. One that will not, however: […]
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Creators Tease What’s in Store for Sequel ‘The Testaments’
Weeks ago, The Handmaid’s Tale came to an end after six seasons. While not every story found a tidy conclusion, we at least know who survived to continue the fight against Gilead—or in some cases, continue to exist within its dystopia. With no fear of Handmaid‘s spoilers holding them back, the creators of both the […]
How ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Made Sure at Least One Character Got a Genuinely Happy Ending
In the first episode of the first season of The Handmaid’s Tale, viewers met Janine, played by Madeline Brewer. Like June, the main character played by Elisabeth Moss, she’s been abducted by Gilead and is now in the Red Center, where new handmaids are forced to learn their horrifying new duties. When Janine talks back, […]
How ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Pulled Off That Surprising Finale Reunion
If you’ve been following io9’s coverage of The Handmaid’s Tale season six, you might have caught our list of five things viewers needed to remember about season five. There was a long gap between seasons, and quite a few high-stakes plot threads to keep track of. One of the items on that list was the […]
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Ended the Only Way It Could: With an Open Ending
The Handmaid’s Tale ended its run this week with an episode titled “The Handmaid’s Tale,” bringing June (Elisabeth Moss) full circle while also allowing Hulu to leave the door wide open for The Testaments, the upcoming series based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 sequel to her 1985 novel. Emotional punctuation took priority over narrative closure, which […]
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Had to Plan Character Deaths Very Strategically
With just one episode to go in The Handmaid’s Tale, the creators, cast, and crew look back in a detailed new oral history that addresses some of the biggest questions viewers have asked about its story over the years. That includes: if Gilead is such a violent police state fond of swiftly executing any and […]
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Showrunners Dig Into This Season’s Most Startling Character Arc
The Handmaid’s Tale has just one episode left to wrap up the story of June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss), who’s been fighting to take down Gilead since 2017—and has finally made some rather big strides in that direction. The penultimate episode of the Hulu show’s sixth and final season packed in a few major “oh shit” […]
The Powder Keg Beneath The Handmaid’s Tale Is Finally Exploding
In the sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, Gilead’s right-wing, misogynistic dystopia has finally started to crumble—and with just two episodes left after this week’s “Exodus,” the full-on revolution viewers have long been promised has begun. First, though, we have a wedding to attend—and what a memorable celebration! Did you get a look […]
The Handmaid’s Tale’s Most Conflicted Commander Is One of Its Best Characters
There are some awful women on The Handmaid’s Tale, but men make up the bulk of its villainous characters. That goes for individual men like the thankfully departed Commander Fred Waterford, but also “men of Gilead” as a collective, oppressive, violent, misogynistic whole. The show tends to deal in heavy-handed themes, but it’s also invested […]
The Handmaid’s Tale Showrunner on Bringing More Backstory to One of Its Most Complicated Characters
Watching The Handmaid’s Tale for the first time, the inevitable question soon rises: how did a place as oppressive and cruel as Gilead come to be? Over six seasons, we’ve learned the Gilead origin story through flashbacks sprinkled into the main narrative—something that feels increasingly like a cautionary tale for American viewers in 2025—and the […]