In The Testaments, the sequel series to The Handmaid’s Tale, Agnes (Chase Infiniti) grows up at a school for Pearl Girls in Gilead run by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and meets Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a newcomer from Canada who has chosen to give up her old life, as they begin to learn what’s actually true about the world around them.
Awards Buzz spoke with showrunner Bruce Miller and executive producer Warren Littlefield about how they believe television has changed since they first began to adapt Margaret Atwood’s work for the small screen:
“I think TV has changed in ways that only you and probably Warren can speak to. I very much keep my head down, and I want to speak to the fact of how little TV has changed in that time. That we’re still making stories that are about the same length. We’re still making stories that are very people-focused, carefully-made television. We’ve gotten support from Hulu and MGM and Amazon and Disney+ all the way along to keep doing that. So I think there’s a consistency to the way that we’ve made television that has been insulating me and our show from any of the vagaries of the rest of the industry in such a wonderful, respectful way, and respectful for Margaret’s material. As Craig Erwich always says to me, no one is going to remember this show for the things that are happening now. They’re going to remember it. Their idea of it having a life beyond us and that they’re going to put the money and energy and effort into it with the idea that it’s going to outlive all of us is such a rare pleasure. It’s not like I had to convince them. They’ve been going that way since the beginning. So I think that TV may have changed, but the way we make the show, fortunately, has retained its very careful picking a good purple level of detail.”
Littlefield added:
“We’re no longer in Peak TV. Peak TV had over five hundred series on any given year, and we’re half of that. However, for audiences, we’re still in a world of infinite choice. So how do we say to the audience, we’re worth your time, we’re worth your investment, because there are such tremendous demands on them. We have the help of Margaret Atwood, her vision, which is a world vision, and it’s a vision that is not year-specific. It’s larger than that. So Bruce yet again could channel Margaret’s vision and turn it into architecture that remains in this world, that is still a world of infinite choice for audience, remains important and worth their time. That’s all embedded, I think, in the experience of seeing this young generation of actors and falling in love with who they are and how they navigate this world.”
Watch the video above to hear how they feel about new audiences with no experience with either the books or The Handmaid’s Tale series opting to check out this series.
The Testaments premieres on Wednesday, April 8th, with new episodes dropping weekly through the season finale on May 27th.
