Hulu returns audiences to the chilling world of Gilead with “The Testaments,” a new series based on Margaret Atwood’s sequel novel.
Unlike “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which followed adult women navigating oppression, the show centers on a generation of young women who have never known life outside the totalitarian regime. For creator and showrunner Bruce Miller and executive producers Warren Littlefield and Steve Stark, that shift in perspective is the series’ driving force, with Stark noting, “Nothing’s more powerful than a teenage girl.”
“We had conversations about lots of different worlds that were interesting, but this one in particular with young women who grew up in Gilead and didn’t know anything else, that is a real, completely different kind of person,” Miller told TheWrap at the show’s Los Angeles premiere on Tuesday. “So you’re seeing what is it like when they try to turn that person while they try to keep that person under their thumb? And it doesn’t work any better than it worked with women who were, because innately, they’re not going to be tamed.”
For Miller, the girls’ adolescence adds unique tension to the story. “It’s a show where just being a teenager can get you shot. That’s the world. So just doing normal things, flirting with a boy, doing things we do all the time as teenagers,” he added. “It’s regular teenage stuff, the stuff that you cannot stop them from doing, and yet they’re trying to stop them from doing it, and they’re punishing them very, very harshly when they do so. They’re keeping their finger on a hose. They’re never going to be able to stop.”
At the center of the series is Chase Infiniti, who Miller describes as “a star, an excellent person.” She stars as Agnes, dutiful and pious, alongside Daisy, a new arrival and convert from beyond Gilead’s borders. “As they navigate the gilded halls of Aunt Lydia’s elite preparatory school for future wives, a place where obedience is instilled brutally and always with divine justification, their bond becomes the catalyst that will upend their past, their present and their future,” according to the show’s logline.
The series also stars Lucy Halliday, Ann Dowd, Mabel Li, Amy Seimetz, Brad Alexander, Rowan Blanchard, Mattea Conforti, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Eva Foote, Isolde Ardies, Shechinah Mpumlwana, Birva Pandya, and Kira Guloien.
Executive producer Steve Stark highlighted the show’s hopeful dimension: “The idea that we could do it again and actually do it a whole different way with young people that actually provide a level of hope,” he said. “Nothing’s more powerful than a teenage girl. When you’re dealing with young women who grew up in a world where they think this is normal, they just start to discover the cracks of that and their own sort of sense of self and self-worth, and they start to tear it down. It’s really, really powerful. Young women are very, very powerful, and very influential, and I certainly live that every day.”
Warren Littlefield described the first season of the show as “an awakening,” adding that “with that awakening comes responsibility.” Miller noted the series’ continued relevance: “I think the younger generation, people are looking towards them to kind of save us. The patriarchy certainly has ruined the world, ruined the planet. So I think this generation is putting themselves on our mind. They’re very outspoken. All of these women—the intelligence that they have. We’re writing a show about the generation people are interested in, a generation that grew up under a cloud, just like these girls, but you cannot tell them what they’re like on the inside—they’re going to be 14-year-old girls, whether you like it or not.”
Stark added, “Seeing these young women stand up against things that are not right is so empowering, and we’re so grateful that we can have a platform to actually do that and show people it’s okay to speak your mind. That’s why it’s so powerful.”
“The Testaments” premieres on Hulu on April 8, launching with its first three episodes, followed by weekly releases.
The post ‘The Testaments’ EPs Talk Gilead’s Expansion With a New Generation: ‘Nothing’s More Powerful Than a Teenage Girl’ appeared first on TheWrap.
