An explosive The Testaments season finale on Hulu (US) and Disney+ (international) will be ours in a week's time, but The Testaments season 2 has already been renewed.
It feels wrong to jump for joy at the prospect of spending more time in Gilead, but to me, it's always felt as though we're only at the beginning of telling The Testaments' story.
While initially devout Agnes (Chase Infiniti) still feels at a moral crossroads, her growth throughout the season so far has been remarkable. The same can be said for pearl girl Daisy (Lucy Halliday), who is having the opposite journey thanks to her covert ties to the Mayday operation.
This may feel even more true if you've read the original novel by Margaret Atwood — it's no spoiler to say that by episode 9, we're only part way through the tale.
Speaking to creator Bruce Miller, It's clear that he couldn't agree more — and even though season 2 was renewed yesterday (May 20), the framework has been in place for a long time.
'We've generously been given a lot of time and space to think about our endings'
"I always have to think in forever terms that because you never know whether you're going to be renewed," Miller tells me. "In the old days, they would pull your card in the middle of the day where you'd be on episode 4 of season 2, and then you wouldn't have anything left. We've been very, very generously given lots of space and time to think about our endings.
"I tried very hard to think about the characters and their stories in a much more general way. What are they doing day to day? How are they living? How are they figuring things out? So season 1 is really about Agnes awakening, and by the end, it's just the beginning.
I love being right. To me, watching The Testaments so far has almost like been watching a TV pilot, with the previous eight episodes merely acting as worldbuilding context. We're not even close to the meat of the story yet, and it shows.
"Every ending in Margaret's world is always a very good beginning," Miller continues. "So I think I don't think of in terms of number of seasons. But if you think of the awakening of a 14/15 year-old girl, her coming to and taking action, those things can go on for quite a quite a while.
"There's plenty of stories to tell that are based in Agnes, Daisy and Aunt Lydia's world and what challenges they are facing."
Executive producer Warren Littlefield adds, "If you're a student of Margaret's novels, and if you were a fan of The Handmaid's Tale, and then you come into Testaments, Agnes catches up by the end of the season to what you may know as a reader and a follower of our show.
"Agnes becomes aware of her roots and origin. I think that leads us to a wonderful opening of what comes next for her."
Fingers crossed we can expect The Testaments season 2 at some point in 2027, but a release date has yet to be confirmed.
