Every Handmaid’s Tale Star Appearing in The Testaments Spinoff

The wait was long, but Hulu and Disney+ finally pulled the trigger: 'The Testaments' landed in April 2026 and jumps back into Gilead a few years after 'The Handmaid's Tale' signed off. New heroes step up, a few old ones pop in, and yes, the show tweaks Margaret Atwood's timeline in some interesting ways.

So where exactly are we picking up?

The series is based on Atwood's 2019 sequel novel, but while the book fast-forwards 15 years, the show only skips ahead about four years from the original series finale. That lets the story keep some continuity with the 'Handmaid's' cast while handing the mic to a new generation trying to crack Gilead from the inside.

Meet the new POVs (and the Gilead jargon they live with)

Agnes is the big one — she's June's daughter Hannah, aged up and living inside Gilead under her new name. When we meet her, she's a 'Plum,' basically a teen in a prep track to become a wife. Once she gets her first period, she levels up to 'Green,' which makes her marriage material for a powerful commander. It 's clinical and gross by design, and the show does not soft-pedal it.

Then there's Daisy, an outsider who infiltrates Gilead by posing as one of the 'Pearl Girls' — missionaries who present as true-believer converts. Her real job: ferry out damaging intel on the regime while pretending she's all-in on their faith. If the terminology feels like deep-cut Atwood lore, that's because it is; the show explains it clearly without stopping dead.

Threading it all together is Aunt Lydia. Ann Dowd is back, narrating the series and operating as a covert source from inside the machine. She's still terrifying, but the show keeps peeling back her history to make sense of how she became, well, Aunt Lydia.

Ann Dowd runs the table as Aunt Lydia

Lydia is the spine of this spinoff. The writers use selective flashbacks to fill in what shaped her without turning the show into pure misery tourism. Creator Bruce Miller put it this way in April 2026 when asked how far they'd go with her past:

'We were very mindful of the fact that we are only showing a few peeks into her past, and what to show in those,' Miller said, adding that the spinoff was deliberate 'about the level of trauma ' they wanted 'to put the audience through.'

'So when looking at the material in The Testaments, we wanted to make sure [the flashbacks] lined up with our goal of understanding Lydia's mindset at the beginning of Gilead and why she made the choices she did.'

Who comes back from 'The Handmaid's Tale'

• Elisabeth Moss (June) — A quiet but effective cameo in the series premiere on Wednesday, April 8. We learn Daisy is tied to Mayday, and in a flashback to life before Gilead, she skateboards into her parents' vintage store while June watches from the background. Moss reappears in episode 3, pulling Daisy to safety after Gilead agents brutally kill Daisy's parents. On top of that, Moss is an executive voice here as a producer.

• Amanda Brugel (Rita) — She returns in episode 7 as a Canada-based Mayday operative. Rita's job now is prepping Daisy for her undercover mission inside Gilead, and her advice is as practical (and chilling) as you'd expect:

  'You protect yourself by following their rules. And don't trust anyone except your handler.'

  'Don't ever underestimate them. Ever. They have spent their lives being vigilant in a way that you never have. So if you go in there thinking that you are smarter than them, you will die.'

• Ann Dowd (Aunt Lydia) — Not just a cameo; she's the anchor. Dowd reprises Lydia as both the narrator and a covert source within Gilead, with carefully chosen flashbacks that deepen — not excuse — her choices.

The leads driving the new story

Chase Infiniti plays Agnes (aka Hannah, now older), and Lucy Halliday plays Daisy. Ann Dowd, of course, is back as Aunt Lydia. The trio forms the show's core: one raised by Gilead, one faking her way inside it, and one policing it while secretly undermining it.

Where to watch

'The Testaments' drops new episodes Wednesdays on Hulu and Disney+.