Margaret Atwood has another story to tell post The Handmaid’s Tale, and luckily it’s also suited for the screen.
According to Time, the acclaimed author’s forthcoming book The Testaments is officially being developed by Hulu and MGM. Bruce Miller, who serves as showrunner on the award-winning Handmaid’s Tale, is exploring how best to adapt the material and is still deciding if it will be rolled into the existing Hulu series or if it will be developed as something else entirely.
The news comes just a week before Atwood’s The Testament is set to hit shelves on September 10. The book is a follow-up to her 1985 novel and hops forward in time by about 15 years after the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, when Offred boarded a van and was driven to an unknown fate. But, although The Testaments exists in the same universe as The Handmaid’s Tale, Ofred will not be at its center. Instead, the story will revolve around three other women with a connection to Gilead. One is a young woman who was raised within the confines of Gilead, another is a Canadian teenager who learns she was born in the oppressive regime and another is—wait for it—Aunt Lydia (played by Anne Dowd in the series).
With The Handmaid’s Tale recently picked up for a fourth season, it’s now gone far beyond Atwood’s original source material. Atwood began writing the novel before the show’s first season premiered and has been integral in moving the plot forward. Now, we’re left to wonder if we’ll get another show from the mind of Margaret Atwood or if The Handmaid’s Tale will take yet another surprising turn.