'The Handmaid’s Tale' Is Getting a Spinoff, and Aunt Lydia Will Be In It

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale and Margaret Atwood’s novel The Testaments.

Praise be! Thought you'd never hear that line again, huh? While we may have bid The Handmaid’s Tale an official farewell on May 27, 2025, after six long and strenuous seasons, the story isn’t over just yet. Viewers are getting more Gilead, more Hannah, and maybe even more of June (Elisabeth Moss) staring dead center into the camera (or into the sky).

That’s right, The Handmaid’s Tale is getting a spinoff. And honestly, that news alone might be enough to curb the sadness and disappointment fans were feeling after watching the ending of a show we’ve literally tuned in to over the course of eight whole years.

Now, of course, you want to know what this spinoff will be about, when it will air, and most importantly, what familiar faces might return. Here’s what we know so far.

The Handmaid’s Tale spinoff, greenlit by Hulu, will be based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel The Testaments, set 15 years after the original series. However, Ann Dowd revealed to TV Insider that the spinoff’s timeline takes place "four to five years" after the show’s finale. The story will follow the lives of the young women raised in Gilead, including Hannah, now going by Agnes, who was torn away from June and Luke (O-T Fagbenle) at a young age and brought up in the dystopian society.

But the spinoff will reveal a different side of the treacherous world June and Mayday have been working to dismantle, a resistance movement that only became successful at the end of Season 6, mainly in the finale.

The spinoff's description, per Variety, notes "For these young women, growing up in Gilead is all they have ever known, having no tangible memories of the outside world prior to their indoctrination into this life. It continues, "Facing the prospect of being married off and living a life of servitude, they will be forced to search for allies, both new and old, to help in their fight for freedom and the life they deserve."

From this, we can conclude that June and her entire team have not yet overthrown Gilead, even 15 years after they began the rebellion. Meanwhile, the girls, who have little to no memory of their original upbringing, have their own version of the story, which we’ll likely see play out in the spinoff.

The Testaments creator Bruce Miller shared a bit more about what viewers can expect from the series in an interview with Deadline. "It’s about growing up Gilead. It feels like exactly the opposite world. These are…the most precious girls in Gilead," he explained, continuing, "And yet you start to realize they’re walking a plank as well, just like the Handmaids. Hannah has to deal with the June inside of her [and] all of a sudden she starts to feel mighty, mighty, mighty rebellious."

Hulu announced via Instagram that production for The Handmaid’s Tale spinoff began on April 7, 2025, in Toronto, though no official release date has been announced yet. However, TV Insider shared that the spinoff has been in development since 2022 and is expected to debut sometime after the final season (possibly in 2026?).

Ann will reprise her role as Aunt Lydia and take on a more prominent protagonist role in the spinoff, compared to her somewhat backseat, but still very present, part in the original series. Lydia remains in Gilead but has a completely different outlook, as we see unfold in the final two episodes of season 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale. She also takes on a new role as the leader of the Pearl Girls, according to TV Insider.

Other actors starring in the spinoff include Rowan Blanchard, Lucy Halliday, Amy Seimetz, and Chase Infiniti as the older Agnes. But what about Elisabeth? Will we see June? That’s not clear yet, but sources confirm she is working as an executive producer, so we at least know she’ll have some influence on the direction the spinoff takes.