The Handmaid’s Tale series finale: How it connects to spin-off

We recognize that there are a lot of people out there who are curious as to how The Handmaid’s Tale will end and The Testaments will begin. Are they directly connected?

Well, here is at least some of what we can say — the finale of the first show is hardly a backdoor pilot for the second, but there will be a throughline. Ann Dowd is back as Lydia, but she is hardly going to be the same person she once was. What we are seeing at this point is very much the beginning of that.

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Speaking as a part of a lengthy feature at The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer Warren Littlefield gives us a better sense of all this:

The Testaments will pick up four years after the Handmaid’s Tale ends, and instead of June’s point of view, the point of view is from young women coming of age into Gilead. They have never known a world that didn’t have Gilead in it. So it’s not all ugly. As Margaret wrote in in the book, the school that educates these young women is Lydia’s school. So we proudly embrace Ann Dowd to carry us forward and she is a very important rudder from one universe into the next.

Is there still a chance that some other characters from the original turn up? In theory sure, but the time jump makes it so that there is a natural way to move forward with a lot of new people. We do think the producers are keen to remind us that these two shows are meant to be their own thing — otherwise, we would have just gotten a season 7 of the original!

Related – Be sure to get some more news on The Handmaid’s Tale, including more on what is ahead

What do you want to see on both The Handmaid’s Tale series finale and also The Testaments?

Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Once you do just that, remember to come back here to get some other updates.