Latest news with #Handmaid's
Perth Now
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
The Testaments will still appeal to fans who never saw The Handmaid's Tale
The Testaments will be "open" to people who never watched The Handmaid's Tale. The hit show ended in May after six seasons, but the franchise is continuing with an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's 2019 sequel novel, which was officially announced six years ago. In an update on the Hulu series, Disney Television Group President Craig Erwich - who oversees ABC and Hulu Originals - told Deadline: "We're very happy with The Testaments. 'It's definitely a different view of that world, but I think will both will be satisfying to Handmaid's fans, but open it up to to new viewers as well.' While the upcoming series is also set in Gilead, the novel picks up after the events of The Handmaid's Tale. The series will follow three women - Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), Daisy (Lucy Halliday) and Agnes (Chase Infiniti), who is the daughter of Elisabeth Moss' daughter June - as they uncover the truth about Gilead, and those rebelling against it. Moss will be back in a behind the scenes role as executive producer, it's not yet known if she'll reprise her role as June on screen. Meanwhile, Erwich insisted Disney are "very proud" of Handmaid's Tale, despite the show only getting one Primetime Emmy Awards nomination this year. Cherry Jones - who won an Emmy for her recurring role of Holly Maddox in 2019 - is on the 2025 shortlist for Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series, but the programme didn't get the nod in any other categories. Erwich said: 'The Handmaid's Tale is judged by the audience's reaction to the final season, which was overwhelmingly excited, gratified, satisfied. 'It's a show we're very proud of. It was the first streaming show ever to win Best Drama, it will be attached to that achievement forever and really defined Hulu, defined a generation of viewers. "So everything beyond that, quite frankly, is gravy. This was a really good year for Handmaid's. We're very happy of the way it sailed off, bittersweet as it is.'
Elle
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
Emily Makes a Long-Awaited Return in 'The Handmaid's Tale' Series Finale
Spoilers below. The Handmaid's Tale has put us through the wringer throughout its final season (and the whole series, really), but luckily, not all of the surprises have been brutal. In this week's season 6 finale—the show's final episode—June (Elisabeth Moss) and viewers at home were treated to Emily's (Alexis Bledel) shocking but welcome return. The character, who was introduced in the show's first season, was written off after season 4 when Bledel stepped away from the series. In season 5, Emily's wife, Sylvia (Clea DuVall), tells June that Emily returned to Gilead on a personal mission to seek revenge and find Aunt Lydia. Since then, she's been missing in action, until this week's finale scene, where Emily and June reunite and take a walk together in a freed Boston. 'It was an immediate yes,' Bledel told The Hollywood Reporter of returning to Handmaid's for the finale. 'It felt right to bring closure to Emily's journey and offer the audience a sense of completion. Bruce put together such a kind and talented group, and so many of the original crew were still there in season six. The production runs like a well-oiled machine — everyone brings their best. I'm excited to see what they create in [sequel series] The Testaments.' Bledel added, 'I hope viewers take away to keep hope alive when things seem impossible. Even if it seems like seeds you plant couldn't possibly grow, plant seeds of hope anyway. You never know; they might find a way.' The actress announced her departure from The Handmaid's Tale in May 2022, ahead of the season 5 premiere. 'After much thought, I felt I had to step away from 'The Handmaid's Tale' at this time,' she told Variety in a statement. 'I am forever grateful to Bruce Miller for writing such truthful and resonant scenes for Emily, and to Hulu, MGM, the cast and crew for their support.' At the time, Moss told Entertainment Tonight that Bledel's exit 'wasn't the easiest thing in the world to handle, I'll be honest with you, because she's such a great, fantastic part of the show. But I do think that it was handled in a really good way.' Years later, the star, director, and executive producer opened up about bringing Bledel—and Emily—back to Handmaid's for its emotional conclusion. 'Bruce talked to me about bringing her back a while ago, before there was even an outline or script,' Moss told THR. 'I think I said to him at the time, 'You realize now that you've told me that, we have to do it.' It's not the easiest thing in the world to call an actor and be like, 'Can you come back for this one episode?' They're busy. But I was like, 'She has to do it.' I get very passionate about these things! And she wanted to do it from the beginning. She didn't need convincing at all. My first official scene on day one [on set] was with Alexis. So it meant a lot to get to work with her again.' That surprise cameo meant a lot to fans, too. ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE. Erica Gonzales is the Deputy Editor, Culture at where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now.
Elle
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
Madeline Brewer Knows You Wanted This Ending For Janine Too In 'The Handmaid's Tale'
Major spoilers below. If there was any character that The Handmaid's Tale fans were praying would get a happy ending in the series finale, it was Janine, the feisty, and at times delusional, handmaid played by Madeline Brewer. Like all those forced to don red in Gilead, Janine has been through hell and back, but season 6 was particularly brutal: Throughout the show's last 10 episodes, viewers find out that Janine has been forced into a life of sex work at Jezebel's. When Commander Wharton (Josh Charles) then shuts down the brothel, Janine watches as her friends get violently murdered, and she gets reassigned to be a handmaid for the abusive and obsessive Commander Bell (Timothy Simons). Even after Mayday retakes the city of Boston, and Bell is murdered, Janine is still trapped in Gilead—until one night when she's delivered across the border and into June's (Elisabeth Moss) arms. Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and Naomi Lawrence née Putnam (Ever Carradine) appear soon after, finally ready to give Janine her daughter, Charlotte, back. 'I know [fans] are [getting] what they've been asking for, and insisting upon, for seasons and seasons now,' Brewer tells ELLE of the emotional reunion. 'Every time I post anything about Handmaid's, [the comments are] like, "I just need her to get into Canada with Charlotte"' Below, the actress gives her full thoughts on Janine's resolution, filming the episode's dream karaoke sequence (featuring a few deceased characters), and the parallels between Handmaid's Tale and Brewer's other talked-about series, You. I was just saying earlier today that I was like, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready. And now that the final episode is [airing], I'm like, No, I'm not ready for it to be over. It is just always a little bit anxiety-inducing to meet the end of a very major chapter of your life. I've been really proud since season been allowed to evolve. They didn't try to keep her as the crazy, screw-loose [handmaid], a little bit of almost comic relief at times. They allowed her to become more fully grounded between season 4 and season 6. So, season 6 has been especially gratifying to me as an actor. Janine is grounded. She has a purpose, but she's willing at the drop of a hat to help her friends. No, I don't have any say in anything. But one of our writers told me in season 4, 'We're not killing you. It's just not going to happen. I think that's something we've pretty firmly decided will not happen.' So, I was like, "I wonder how this will end then?" I found out reading the script. Lizzie [Moss] had said something to me during season 6, something like, "I think you'll be very happy with where you end up." And I am. I'm very happy with where Janine lands and with whom she lands. It's just such a beautiful moment of these four women—Naomi, Lydia, Janine, and June—and the sacrifices that they've all made. I've called it a quiet ending, because it's so peaceful for me. It's not chaotic and bombs going off and a plane blowing up. It's such a beautifully peaceful, quiet, earned ending for a character who has been through so much. And she's the one that you'd think is going to go out with a real bang and a real fight. I'm so glad that she just gets to quietly go into the next phase of her life. I never really allowed myself to do that, because I think part of me, despite what they told me, thought Janine would die in Gilead, maybe in the fight or something...I'm glad that I just let it be. And I trust our writers. I think with all of the chaos of what happens in the days prior, and some of the things Serena has been saying to Naomi, it really cuts to the core that Naomi is a mother. She's been a mother to this girl. Especially seeing [Commander] Lawrence with Charlotte, I think it just changes something for her. Because when we think about the timeline, Naomi would've been raised to read books and to form her own opinions. And regardless of what she believes in this patriarchal structure, I think she wants her daughter to know how to read. I think she wants her to know how to form her own opinions and experience the most out of life, and she knows it's not going to happen in Gilead. It's a really beautiful sacrifice that Naomi makes where she, for the first time it seems, casts aside her own ego and her own hatred of these handmaids, and puts the life and happiness of her daughter [first]. Oh, it was beautiful. Nina [Kiri, who plays Alma, who died in season 4] and Bahia [Watson, who plays Brianna, who also died in season 4] are two of my closest friends, so to have them back, to see Alexis [Bledel, who plays Emily] after so many was a beautiful moment. It was bittersweet, which is how I think we've all described the ending. But that is a callback to season 1 where I'm on the bridge, and June is trying to get Janine to come down, and she's like, 'We could drink margaritas and do karaoke.' It's such a beautiful callback to their friendship and the way these women have saved each other, repeatedly, and in a different world, in a different time, they could have been was really nice to just think about what could have been. It was also a beautiful goodbye for all of us. I think that's really what they wanted. To say: Our final image of these women together is not going to be in strife. Let's remember them as what they could have been together. There's too much history and too much guilt, and resentment, and love, and fear that they could only just part ways. Janine recognizes what Lydia did for her. And I think Lydia cannot move forward without doing this. But I don't think that absolves anyone of their participation, speaking only for Janine and Lydia. I think that guilt will haunt Lydia for a very long time. What she learns in episodes 9 and 10 of this series sets up The Testaments. But I don't think their relationship could ever meet peace. There's just too much history. Let's say they both ended up in Canada and were living normal lives. I don't think they'd go out for coffee. It's like, this is over now, because this is all we can be to each other, is this relationship. This can't take on another life in another place and time. She just texted me this morning! I've worked with so many brilliant actors on The Handmaid's Tale that it would be impossible not to take with me some of the technical things I've learned as an actor. But what I'll take with me, from Ann specifically, is that is the warmest and most generous human being you will ever meet in your life. As archaic as it is, and icky as it is sometimes, it's a caste system on a set. It's hierarchical, and you don't really step out of your rank, which is insane. Ann has a way of being at the top of the totem pole and making every single person feel like her closest friend. She has a way of touching every person and making them feel heard, and wanted, and valued in just a quick interaction. She makes sure to thank everyone, all of our crew, all of our background [actors], our crafty, everybody. I've seen the warmth that she brings to people. And I will take that with me because it changes your life. She's magic. Lizzie doesn't blink. She blinks, of course, but she has a way of maintaining eye contact and connection where I think most people might shy away. I have trouble with eye contact—I'm looking anywhere but in someone's eyes. And watching her, that connection is so powerful and engaging. That was when all of the Jezebels get shot. It was like my body was ignited. It was so hard, but necessary. She's lost so much, Janine. That was one of the only things she was really living for. She was living for Charlotte, but her purpose was with these women, her friends, her sisters, and she can't save them. There's nothing she can do. It's just so utterly devastating. Janine has just made me a better person. She's smarter, and funnier, and more compassionate, and stronger. She's so many things I'm not and that I aspire to be. She is smart! That's the thing about Janine that I've always loved and admired is that she knows how to survive. When we meet her in seasons 1 and 2, and she's checked out, it's because that's how she's going to get through. Because, otherwise, what? Is she supposed to meet despair and torture every day? And in the meantime, that sisterhood—with Alma, Brianna, and June—uplifts her and holds her, as she does them. It really drives home for me the truth that we are nothing without our sisterhoods, whatever they may look like. Our sisterhoods, our brotherhoods, our everythings. Our communities are how we get through. Not between the characters, but definitely thematically. I guess that's part of the zeitgeist right now. That's a reflection of a bit of our world. Handmaid's Tale, You, Adolescence—these are conversations that are being had on large and small screens because they are part of our lives. Patriarchy hurts everyone. And in our own way, in Handmaid's Tale and You, we're trying to help people understand that fact and that it's not an admonishment of maleness, it's not an indictment of masculinity, but it is worthy of conversation. Especially with You coming out, I naively assumed most of the fans were young women and girls like me. And it's a lot of men, really boys, like 18- to 23-year-olds. They idolize this man [Joe]. They want to model themselves after him because, to them, he is the perfect picture of masculinity. He's strong, powerful, clever, charming, good looking, he's rich at the end, and he gets the girl nine times out of 10. I can see on the surface why they admire him, but they're doing mental acrobatics, or it's not bothering them, the cognitive dissonance of the man they admire is also a murderer. I think for some of them, unfortunately, the murder makes him even better—the fact that he's willing to go the distance to punish a woman for what she has done to him. The conversations around the two shows... I want to be in a Netflix Christmas movie. [Laughs] I'm so tired. No, I do love it. And this is the greater picture around getting to be an actor. I get to be on shows where the conversations are important and interesting. And I feel sorry that the boys who are mad at me for playing Bronte [in You], I'm sorry that they don't have better role models. I was at a meeting at Netflix, and they were like, 'What do you want to do?' And I was like, 'I would love to do a Christmas movie.' And they were like, 'Really? That's not really your thing.' And I'm like, 'It could be.' I love a musical. I'm a musical theater girl. It would take several years, but I would want to be Mama Rose in Gypsy. Then, of course, after seeing Sunset Blvd., I simply must play Norma Desmond, who I'm obsessed with from the film. But there are so many great shows out there and great roles for women in musical theater and more being written. I think theater is having a really great time right now, and I'm excited to join. I have a few irons in the fire and things I'm cooking up. I want to go back to theater. I live in New York, so that's where my heart is. I'm getting married in less than two months. So I'm like, Nothing can hurt me right now. I get to get married to the love of my life. I feel a lot of possibility. I feel like the world is my oyster. I just finished two extraordinary shows. I'm very proud of them. And I can't wait to see what's next in store for me. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE. Madison is the Digital Deputy Editor at where she also covers news, politics, and culture. If she's not online, she's probably napping or trying not to fall while rock climbing.
Elle
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
7 Questions That Need Answering In The Last Two Episodes Of 'The Handmaid's Tale'
This piece contains spoilers up to the end of Episode 8, Season 6 of 'The Handmaid's Tale' It's a bittersweet time for fans of The Handmaid's Tale as the finale looms large, with just two episodes to go. On the one hand we're about to find out where six seasons and years of storytelling and brutal plot lines will end for some of our favourite characters - on the other, we're about to say goodbye to one of the most gripping (and scarily prescient) dramas around. At the end of episode 8, Mayday had managed to carry out their silent and deadly attack. There was no huge red wedding spectacle at Serena's (Yvonne Strahovski) wedding, but there was a silently deadly show of strength, as the handmaids turned on their drugged masters, whose bodies were laced with sedatives from the wedding cake. It was one of the best episodes in years - and in some ways offered the retribution that fans have been waiting for since the show aired in 2017. But what's next? As soon as the show aired, the searches for 'The Handmaid's Tale, episode 9, season six' spiked - we're tantalisingly close to the end, but there's still so much to be sorted out. So, without further ado, here are some of the biggest questions The Handmaid's Tale needs to answer in episodes nine and 10, the last ever episode. It's the obvious one, but the one we're all holding our breath for. The original Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale left you heartbreakingly unsure of anything - but in this TV adaptation, we've found many more narratives and stories for June to follow - a whole five other seasons, in fact. But this most recent series especially has seen June finally enact some brutal vengeance on the highest orders of Gilead - which puts her firmly in their crosshairs for payback. Will she make it out alive to see the fruits of her labour, finally? Well, if you're a big fan of the Handmaid's universe, then you'll know that The Testaments is coming to TV too, created off the back of Atwood's sequel to her original novel. And, we'd hope this isn't a spoiler if you're this deep into the fandom, but June does appear in that book. But... After five supplementary seasons, we know that the showrunners have taken the reins of Offred's story and really run away from the books with it. So, while we know they're working on a version of The Testaments, we don't know if they will stay completely true to the book - and whether that will mean their hands are tied to keep both June and Aunt Lydia alive, so they can appear in the new story. As of yet, it's still not been confirmed if Elisabeth Moss will appear in The Testaments, so we really don't know. While June has safely left Nicole with her mother, she couldn't give up the fight for Hannah - and it is this that has continued to fuel her throughout the final series. We think this is too much of a spoiler to completely reveal, but let's just say The Testaments has some involvement in Hannah's fate and her possible reunion with June, so if you know that story already, you maybe have suspicions on how this will go. How close the producer of The Testaments will stick to the book will ultimately affect Hannah and June's ending. Again, the presence of The Testaments necessitates that Gilead isn't completely destroyed... The Testaments tells the stories of Lydia, Agnes and Daisy, sometime after The Handmaid's Tale book, and Gilead is still functioning. This doesn't necessarily mean that there won't be a real wound caused to Gilead in the last two episodes, we're sure the writers could find a way to work around /rejuvenate Gilead, and the key could lie with New Bethlehem perhaps. At the end of episode 8, the resistance force Mayday had really dealt a brutal blow to Gilead - in the final two episodes, will their victories continue, or will they be beaten again? Back and forth, where does Serena and her allegiance truly lie? It's clear that her main motivation for everything now is her son, Noah. But having escaped near certain death in the beginning of season six, where will the shifting sands in New Bethlehem find Serena come the end of the series? Creator Bruce Miller already told The Hollywood Reporter he wanted to kill Serena off in episode one of season six - so perhaps this could give us a clue to where his allegiances lie... 'I wanted to kill her,' he confessed. 'Because I think she was such a horrible person and being dead on the side of the road completely anonymously [after she was pushed from the train during the first episode of the season finale] would have been a fitting end. I had to be convinced not to throw her off that train, along with the kid.' Strahovski told ELLE that she wasn't keen on that ending, but wasn't against a more dramatic death: 'Naturally, I am tied to her as a character. She's so multi-layered, and she's one of those characters that is the epitome of the grey area, due to how nuanced she is,' she explained. 'I think I would have been okay with her going out in some kind of tragic blaze of glory kind of way. It would have been fitting, and even satisfying for the inner audience member within me.' Will the actor get her way - only two more weeks to find out. After that brutal episode eight betrayal, episode nine seemed to indicate that June understood that things between her and Nick were finally broken. But we have been here before... with June more focussed than ever on Mayday and the destruction of Gilead, and Nick ultimately showing Gilead is where his faith lies, it seems like their bond is broken. But with Nick closer to the top than ever, and Gilead under threat, what does this mean for his fate? Now long to find out. After coming close to death so many times, fans have been obsessed with Janine's fate since the start of season six, with it becoming one of the biggest questions fans were googling according to the platform's data? We know The Handmaid's Tale loves to break out heart, so poor Janine has that against her... as well as her current brutal position within Gilead. But actor Madeleine Brewer has hinted that fans can take a minor sigh of relief when it comes to Janine's fate. Speaking to The Cut, the actor revealed, 'I had enough time between seasons to prepare myself for the goodbye. 'But Janine doesn't end with much fanfare; she ends in a quietly beautiful way, to the point where you can kind of just imagine what her life might be like. It's such a cyclical thing, starting the show in 2016 and finishing the show in early 2025. I'm ready to leave this world and take everything it's taught me.' ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE.
Los Angeles Times
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Elisabeth Moss' ‘Handmaid's Tale' Emmy chances, by the numbers
For 'The Handmaid's Tale' star Elisabeth Moss, frequent contention for Emmys and other awards over the past 15 years might give the impression she has won more often than she has. Moss' acting Emmy nominations thus far include: for her breakout role as secretary-turned-ad copywriter Peggy Olson in 'Mad Men,' and … for playing the sexual servitude-escaping, resistance-leading June Osborne in 'The Handmaid's Tale.' Moss won her only acting Emmy, a drama lead prize for 'Handmaid's,' after a long dry spell that included … losses in 2013: drama lead for 'Mad Men' and limited series lead for her performance as a detective in 'Top of the Lake.' Moss might have inherited her Emmy win percentage from onscreen 'West Wing' parents Martin Sheen and Stockard Channing, who together collected 12 nominations but just one win (Channing, supporting drama actress, 2002), or perhaps ... or Moss' 'Mad Men' co-star Jon Hamm's frequent-bridesmaid status. Timing might be on Moss' side, though, if you believe in poetic justice: The 2025 Emmys will take place eight months after Donald Trump's second inauguration, and she won her 'Handmaid's' Emmy eight months after his first.
