“The Testaments” Demands Its Own Spotlight — Hulu, Netflix, or HBO, Are You Watching?
Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments is more than just a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale—it’s a riveting, character-driven expansion of Gilead’s terrifying world, and it’s primed for its own screen adaptation. With the massive success of Hulu’s original series, the timing is ripe for a standalone limited series or spinoff that gives The Testaments its due.
Told through “found documents” and the voices of three women—Agnes, Daisy, and the infamous Aunt Lydia—The Testaments dives into the cracks and crevices of Gilead’s crumbling foundations. It offers a broader political scope and deeper institutional insight than its predecessor, providing fertile ground for a suspenseful and richly layered screen treatment. Agnes offers a view from within, Daisy brings the lens of an outsider, and Lydia delivers the chilling, Machiavellian heart of the regime.
Though the novel trades some of The Handmaid’s Tale’s poetic restraint for plot-driven urgency, that very shift makes it perfect for a thriller-style limited series—think The Queen’s Gambit meets Alias Grace, with the moral ambiguity and world-shaping stakes of Andor or Chernobyl.
The Testaments would thrive with the cinematic polish of HBO, the serialized depth of Netflix, or the continuity and built-in audience of Hulu. It’s a feminist dystopian spy thriller begging for its own visual identity, distinct from the long-running original series, yet deeply rooted in the world Atwood created.
It’s suspenseful, full of incident—and entirely ready for its close-up.
Genre: Suspense & Thriller/Fantasy
