*Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Testaments season 1.*
Following up a beloved series like The Handmaid’s Tale was never going to be an easy feat but The Testaments has not only proven that it’s in a new dystopian lane of its own, but that it also isn’t afraid to turn the original Margaret Atwood novel on its head a little bit.
Across its first season, the coming-of-age series has centred on Agnes (Chase Infiniti) and Daisy (Lucy Halliday) who are paired together in Aunt Lydia‘s (Ann Dowd) preparatory academy one day and are immediately suspicious of one another. Daisy, it turns out, is on a Mayday mission and has been sent into Gilead by none other than June (Elisabeth Moss) herself after Daisy’s parents were both killed in Canada.
Agnes, on the other hand, has been enjoying life in picture-perfect Gilead but as she grows older, the focus switches on marriage and which older Commander she will be wed to. The season 1 finale left on a sombre but empowering note as it’s all too clear that Daisy is hellbent on recruiting her fellow Plums – but she could be playing with fire.
With The Testaments season 2 already having been confirmed, fans will start to wonder just when it will be landing on screens. Read on for everything we know so far.
The Testaments season 2 release date speculation
The Testaments was renewed for its second season just a week before the release of the season 1 finale, setting a lot of fans’ minds at ease.
As for when that second season will be released, we don’t yet know. Some fans have speculated that the series could be going into production very soon, seeing as the initial plan for the series was for the show to continue on into “three to five seasons” anyway, according to the show’s creator.
The Handmaid’s Tale enjoyed quite a regular release pattern, with its first three seasons being released yearly before the fourth came in 2021, the fifth in 2022 and the final sixth being released in 2025 (which was delayed by strikes at the time).
That could mean that if The Testaments was to follow suit of its predecessor, we could be looking at a potential 2027 release date for season 2. Watch this space!
The Testaments season 2 cast speculation: Who could be returning?
The final shot of Agnes, Daisy and Shunammite (Rowan Blanchard) at the end of season 1 almost cements the fact that they will be one of the major focuses of the second season.
We’d expect the majority of the season 1 cast to be returning seeing as their stories are far from being wrapped up. Although Becka’s (Mattea Conforti) story reached a tragic conclusion, fans of the original book will know that her story has been changed for the series so there’s plenty of scope left for her arc going into season 2.
Although Agnes’s engagement to Commander Weston was called off, we’d likely expect to see him appear again and be looking for another wife, which only seems sinister now that we know his nefarious backstory of domestic violence. The same can be said of Commander Judd (Charlie Carrick) who is at the top of the chain and seems to be done with working alongside Aunt Lydia.
As for those that won’t be making another appearance in the series (but could in flashbacks), that would be the Grove parents. Dr Grove (Randal Edwards) was killed in the penultimate episode by Becka but wanting her daughter to avoid punishment for her crime, her mother (Kate Hewlett) took the fall for it and was sentenced to death.
The cast members we’d expect to return for The Testaments season 2 are as follows.
- Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia
- Chase Infiniti as Agnes
- Lucy Halliday as Daisy
- Rowan Blanchard as Shunammite
- Mattea Conforti as Becka
- Mabel Li as Aunt Vidala
- Amy Seimetz as Paula
- Nate Corddry as Commander MacKenzie
- Brad Alexander as Garth
- Zarrin Darnell-Martin as Aunt Gabbana
- Eva Foote as Aunt Estee
- Isolde Ardies as Hulda
- Shechinah Mpumlwana as Jehosheba
- Birva Pandya as Miriam
- Kira Guloien as Rosa
- Charlie Carrick as Commander Judd
- Reed Diamond as Commander Weston
As for guest appearances, we’d also expect Elisabeth Moss to reprise her role as June Osbourne for further episodes of The Testaments. O-T Fagbenle, who played Hannah’s (aka Agnes) father Luke in The Handmaid’s Tale, has also teased that “there have been some conversations” about him making a cameo appearance in The Testaments too.
What could The Testaments season 2 be about?
With Agnes having her engagement called off, that now means that she’s in the middle of an “unprecedented” time at Aunt Lydia’s school as a returning student. She’s obviously a Green now but will essentially be re-doing the year whilst the Aunts look for a suitable match for her.
Depending on if there is a time jump between seasons, that likely means that the ball and engagement process will unfold once more, but now with Agnes having Daisy and Shu by her side. Daisy has now gotten her period so that means she’s inching dangerously further into Gilead life even though she’s an undercover Mayday operative. On the other hand, Shu hasn’t had her period yet and so is technically still a Plum but that could all change in season 2.
Many fans have continued to speculate about Shu and her high ranking in Gilead society, with us now knowing that her brother was one of the children taken back to Canada on Angel’s Flight. We can likely expect more of Shu’s backstory to be explored in season 2, seeing as she’s internalised a lot of pressure being the only child left in her family.
Seeing as the rest of the Greens have now gone ahead with their engagements, we’d expect the girls to attend all manner of weddings and parties to celebrate, with the likes of Hulda, Miriam and Jehosheba just some of their group to be wed.
The main overarching leftover from season 1 was the fact that Aunt Lydia wasn’t revealed to be part of Mayday, as is the case in the books. Whether the series is sticking true to the book in that regard or just simply withholding that information for a little while longer remains to be seen – but we can certainly expect more exploration of Lydia and Judd’s power dynamics. With Lydia and Vidala seemingly on the same page at long last, it also seemed as though Judd was no longer interested in working with Lydia. But what will that spell for the school’s future?
As for Judd, many fans understandably think there’s more than meets the eye to his cool exterior. As one of the founders of Gilead and the top ranking officers, he’s shaped himself to be the perfect husband. But with his wife Penny suffering another miscarriage, some fans have speculated that he could actually end up killing her and choosing another wife, which could be Agnes. In the case of the book, he purposely poisons his wives to get younger ones so that could certainly unfold in a similar way in the show.
One of the main things to remember going into the second season is the fact that Agnes now knows who her real mother is and we saw her retrieve her childhood drawing with her real name of Hannah at the bottom. That surely only means that rebellion could be right around the corner…
Is there a trailer for The Testaments season 2?
As season 2 hasn’t yet entered into production, there’s no trailer just yet. But you can relive the magic of season 1 below.
The Testaments is available to stream on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.
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