A sequel taking place years after The Handmaid’s Tale is coming to Disney+

The show takes place roughly five years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale

It’s like Mean Girls, but in Gilead (Disney )

It’s been eight months since we watched Elizabeth Moss’ June liberate Boston from the iron-clad hands of the theocratic Gilead regime, while taking the difficult decision to leave her daughter Hannah behind. If you’ve been missing The Handmaid’s Tale following that explosive finale – praise be – Disney+ has just announced the release date for the sequel series The Testaments – and you won’t have to wait long.

Disney+ has announced that the adaptation of Maragaret Atwood’s The Testaments will be coming to the streaming platform later this spring, bringing the Booker Prize winning sequel to life.

Set four to five years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale finale, The Testaments follows Agnes Mackenzie, also known as Hannah, as she is raised at Aunt Lydia’s preparatory school for future Wives.

So, when will The Testaments arrive on our screens, and how will it differ from the book? Here’s everything you need to know.

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’s The Testaments’ UK release date: When will the show premiere?

(Disney+)

The Testaments will premiere on 8 April exclusively on Disney+ in the UK, marking a change from The Handmaid’s Tale, which previously aired on Channel 4 and Amazon Prime Video.

Disney+ is currently running a limited-time offer on all of its plans, meaning you can get an ad-supported subscription for just £3.99 for three months. The streamer has also slashed the price of the standard ad-free subscription to £6.99 for the first three months, as well as the premium subscription to £9.99 for the first three months.

This offer ends on 28 January, so you don’t have long to take advantage of the deal. What’s nice is that, if you subscribe today, the discounted three months will coincide with the premiere of The Testaments.

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‘The Handmaids’ Tale The Testaments’ plot and cast

Based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel, The Testaments expands the world of Gilead through the eyes of three women. Alongside Agnes Mackenzie, the series also follows Daisy, a teenager raised outside Gilead who is recruited into the system, and Aunt Lydia, whose once again played by Ann Dowd. The aunt’s influence within the regime becomes central to the story.

Chase Infiniti, who was recently nominated for a Golden Globe in One Battle After Another, plays Agnes; Lucy Halliday (Blue Jean) plays Daisy and Dowd reprises her Emmy-winning role as Aunt Lydia. They are joined by Amy Seimetz, Rowan Blanchard, Brad Alexander, Mabel Li, Mattea Conforti and Zarrin Darnell-Martin. Elisabeth Moss also returns as an executive producer.

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A trailer has yet to be released. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in April last year, returning showrunner Bruce Miller described the series as “like Mean Girls growing up in Gilead”, with a more coming-of-age feel compared to The Handmaid’s Tale. The Testaments explores what it’s like to grow up at the top as the daughter of a high commander, rather than the bottom of the hierarchy with June.

But how does it differ from the book? The biggest difference is the shift in timeline. The book is set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, while the series is set roughly four to five years after The Handmaid’s Tale finale, making Agnes (or Hannah) a teenager on-screen.

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