Gilead is back, but this time we are seeing it through the eyes of the daughters. Here is how Hulu’s brand new sequel series connects to The Handmaid’s Tale and why fans should be excited.

Praise be — Gilead is back on our screens. The Testaments, Hulu’s long-awaited sequel series to The Handmaid’s Tale, has officially arrived with its first three episodes dropping today, April 8, 2026. Based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel of the same name, the show returns to the dystopian world of Gilead but shifts the lens entirely — away from the handmaids and toward the daughters of the regime who are being groomed to uphold it. The result, based on early reviews, is something bold, visually striking, and deeply worth your time.

If you have not yet finished The Handmaid’s Tale, or if it has been a while since you visited Gilead, here is everything you need to know before you start watching.

At a glance
Premiere date: April 8, 2026 — first three episodes available now
Where to watch: Hulu and Disney+ (bundle subscribers)
Episodes: 10 episodes total, new episodes every Wednesday
Season finale: May 27, 2026
Based on: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (2019)
Showrunner: Bruce Miller (The Handmaid’s Tale)

What Is The Testaments About?

The series is set roughly four to five years after the ending of The Handmaid’s Tale and follows two teenage girls whose lives — and bond — will prove central to the battle against Gilead. Agnes MacKenzie, played by Chase Infiniti, appears to live a relatively privileged life as the daughter of a powerful commander. She attends an elite preparatory school run by the formidable Aunt Lydia, where she and her friends are being trained to become the perfect wives of Gilead’s most powerful men. But Agnes’s carefully constructed world begins to fracture when an outsider, Daisy, arrives at the school.

Daisy, played by Lucy Halliday, is a new arrival from beyond Gilead’s borders — a convert from Canada whose connection to the resistance runs deeper than anyone at the school realizes. Together, the two girls form a bond that will set events in motion far beyond the gilded halls of their school.

The tone is deliberately different from The Handmaid’s Tale. Where the original series was relentlessly bleak and claustrophobic, The Testaments leans into something more vibrant and defiant — a coming-of-age story with needle drops, pastel uniforms, and a more optimistic undercurrent. The horror is still there, but so is the hope.

How Does It Connect to The Handmaid’s Tale?

If you watched all six seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale, the connections will hit hard. Agnes is not a stranger to long-time fans — she is Hannah Bankole, June Osborne’s eldest daughter, who was taken from her mother and raised inside Gilead as a commander’s child. Watching her navigate a world that took her from her mother, not knowing who she truly is, is quietly devastating even before the show makes it explicit.

Ann Dowd returns as Aunt Lydia, and the character is fascinating in a new context. In The Handmaid’s Tale she was a disciplinarian enforcer. Here, running a school for the daughters of commanders, she is something more complicated — devoted to Gilead on the surface, but with intentions that are not always what they seem.

And yes — Elisabeth Moss does appear. Without going too deep into spoilers, June makes a brief cameo in the premiere, and plays a more significant role in the third episode, where flashbacks reveal how she connects to Daisy and the resistance. Moss is also an executive producer on the series, keeping her fingerprints on Gilead even without a full-time role in front of the camera.

“We had no idea what we were capable of. It was time for us to change things.”— Agnes (Chase Infiniti), The Testaments

Meet the Key Characters

Agnes MacKenzie — played by Chase Infiniti
Known to Handmaid’s Tale fans as Hannah Bankole, June Osborne’s eldest daughter. Agnes has grown up inside Gilead as a privileged commander’s daughter, dutiful and devout — until the cracks start to show. Her arc is the emotional core of the series.

Daisy — played by Lucy Halliday
A new arrival at Aunt Lydia’s school from beyond Gilead’s borders. Her background and her mysterious importance to the resistance become the engine of the season. Fans of the original series will recognize her true identity quickly.

Aunt Lydia — played by Ann Dowd
The Emmy-winning Ann Dowd is back, and Aunt Lydia in The Testaments is a more layered creation than ever. Running an elite school for future wives, she appears devoted to Gilead’s mission — but her true motivations are far more complex.

Do You Need to Watch The Handmaid’s Tale First?

The official line is that The Testaments can be enjoyed on its own, and that is largely true — the show introduces its world and characters clearly enough for newcomers. But if you are a fan of the original series, the emotional weight of seeing Agnes, Lydia, and even brief glimpses of June again is significantly deeper with that context behind you. Knowing what Gilead took from June, and then watching her daughter thrive inside the very system that stole her childhood, is something the show does not need to spell out for returning fans.

It is also worth noting that the TV series diverges slightly from Atwood’s novel in terms of timeline. The book jumps 15 years past the events of The Handmaid’s Tale. The show compresses that to four or five years to stay closer to the television continuity established across six seasons, and to keep the characters we know from the original series within reach.

Critics score: 87% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 31 reviews at launch. Variety describes it as “a stunning follow-up” to the original series.

Worth Watching?

Everything points to yes. The Testaments arrives with an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes at launch, and the early critical consensus positions it as a genuinely worthy successor to one of the most acclaimed dramas of the last decade. The shift in tone toward something more youthful and defiant is a smart creative choice — it keeps the world feeling alive rather than simply revisiting the same emotional territory as its predecessor.

Three episodes are available right now on Hulu and on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. New episodes drop every Wednesday through the season finale on May 27. If you have been waiting for a reason to return to Gilead, this is it.

The Testaments is streaming now on Hulu. New episodes drop weekly every Wednesday through May 27, 2026.