Summary

• The Testaments, Hulu's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, should consider being a one-season series to avoid drawn-out storytelling.
• Learn from The Handmaid's Tale's mistake of expanding past the original novel's story and risk losing viewership.
• The Testaments can benefit from a concise, well-planned season to prevent over-development of plot and complexity.

The long-awaited sequel to The Testaments, plans to pick up about 15 years after the events of the timeline of The Handmaid's Tale. With six seasons of the original show to learn from, The Testaments should pay attention to one important thing as its planning begins.

The Handmaid's Tale season 6 begins production in summer 2024, with plans for the season to premiere sometime around the summer of 2025. This now looks like it will align with the release year of The Testaments, which also has tentatively set a 2025 premiere schedule. While many ing the cast of The Testaments, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) is the one confirmed star who will appear. Even with a compelling story and returning stars, The Testaments must do one thing to ensure its success.

The Handmaid's Tale seasons 1-5 are available to stream on Hulu.

The Testaments Can Avoid The Handmaid Tale's Fate By Sticking To One Season

One of the major complaints about The Handmaid's Tale is that it has simply dragged out for too long. The Handmaid's Tale season 6 will air in the summer of 2025, which will be almost three years since season 5 debuted. The Handmaid's Tale season 1 was released all the way back in April 2017, meaning almost eight and a half years will have ed between its debut and the finale.

The Handmaid's Tale season 6 will air in the summer of 2025, which will be almost three years since season 5 debuted.

The Testaments would benefit from being a one-season miniseries or limited series that can tell a faithful adaptation of the sequel novel. Deploying this strategy would mean The Testaments would be at much less risk of suffering the fate of The Handmaid's Tale, which has lost interest and viewership in the last few seasons. Gaining the attention of viewers for a solid one-season series would allow for a penetration of the zeitgeist with fans not having to wonder how many seasons they have to commit.

The Handmaid's Tale Sequel Show Can Avoid The Original's Biggest Mistake

The biggest mistake The Handmaid's Tale made was telling its story too far past the events that happened in Margaret Atwood's original novel. From about the beginning of The Handmaid's Tale season 2, the story being told is not part of the original text. The writers and directors have done a very good job of building out the world and creating new dramatic elements, but all of those elements are outside of Atwood's original vision.

The Testaments, a story told a decade and a half after The Handmaid's Tale ends, also has a finite story told through a 2019 novel. There is a very clear and deliberate ending to that story, and Hulu would benefit from telling it in one, well-planned season instead of drawing out the plot with no end in sight. The Handmaid's Tale has suffered from over-development of the plot and complexity of storytelling. It's a clear lesson for The Testaments that sometimes less can actually be more.