The final return to Gilead is way behind schedule
The sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale is coming soon, closing out the critically acclaimed show with one more return to Gilead just as the counter-revolution seems to be splintering at ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6: Release Date, Cast and Spoilers.
When The Handmaid’s Tale first landed in 2017, it was the standout dystopia in a TV landscape full of them. A few months into Donald Trump’s term as president, this angry, bleak series felt like a cathartic watch for anyone staring into the next four years with trepidation. Now the final trip to the totalitarian theocracy of Gilead comes to an end in the shadow of a possible second Trump presidency and after the repeal of Roe v Wade. It’s all felt quite chillingly real.
The fifth season left June en route to Honolulu by way of Vancouver, and with Luke captured in the process of setting June and Nichole toward freedom. June is still a target for the Gilead state, and she and Nick can’t stop thinking about each other despite having apparently decided to break it off. But what should we expect from the sixth season of The Handmaid’s Tale at ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6: Release Date, Cast and Spoilers?
When is The Handmaid’s Tale series six out?
Stay with us: filming was slated to start in autumn 2023, but the SAG-AFTRA strikes pushed that back. In February 2024, though, Disney’s head of TV Craig Erwich did at least confirm the broad window when you might be able to see it. “The Handmaid’s Tale is going to production this summer, premieres in 2025,” he told Deadline.
That was backed up by Elisabeth Moss, who told Jimmy Kimmel Live that: “We are going back to shoot this summer. Our final season… It It probably won’t be [released] until maybe 2025.”
Finally, at the beginning of September 2024, we got confirmation through the official clapper-board.
A photo of a grinning Moss with the caption, “We’re about to start scene one of episode one of the sixth series,” was uploaded on the show’s Instagram page. The caption next to it said, “Guess who’s back?” and added, “Production on the final season has officially started.”‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6: Release Date, Cast, and Spoilers will air in the spring of 2025.
Which is a pretty quick turnaround, but all the better to have a rough date to pencil into our diaries now.
Who’s in The Handmaid’s Tale series six?
All of the core cast – Elisabeth Moss, Max Minghella, Yvonne Strahovski, Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd, O-T Fagbenle and the rest – will be returning for the finale, but there is one major change this time.
Alexis Bledel, who played Emily – formerly Ofglen – has decided to leave and her character has returned to Gilead.
“After much thought, I felt I had to step away from The Handmaid’s Tale at this time,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “I am forever grateful to Bruce Miller for writing such truthful and resonant scenes for Emily, and to Hulu, MGM, the cast and crew for their support.”
You’ll be seeing plenty of Moss over the next few years. The Mad Men actor recently starred in Next Goal Wins, Taika Waititi’s comedy-drama about the trials and tribulations of the (famously terrible) American Samoan football team, and she’s gearing up to play Eleanor Coppola, documentary filmmaker and wife of director Francis, in Francis and the Godfather. Then there are two TV projects: She Will Rise, which tells the story of former US congresswoman Katie Hill, as well as the The Veil, a thriller miniseries. She’s also signed on for the Black Mirror-esque sci-fi Shell, alongside Kate Hudson and Kaia Gerber at ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6: Release Date, Cast and Spoilers.
What happens in The Handmaid’s Tale series six?
Three big questions: did June make it to safety? Will she and Nick get it together? And will anyone manage to bring down Gilead once and for all?
Moss told Elle that season six was “going to be a season where June is going to figure out who she is and who she’s going to be for the rest of her life”.
“The fight is not just about one individual; it’s much larger than that,” she said. “And I think she is, in season five, getting to that place where she’s realising that. And then season six is going to be very much about that, and then about all the characters figuring out whose side they’re on and what their next move is.”
There might be a very slight change of direction with the departure of showrunner Bruce Miller to concentrate on the spin-off series The Testaments, based on Margaret Atwood’s recent follow-up novel. Instead, longstanding Handmaid’s Tale writers and exec producers Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang will be helming things. Don’t expect that change of direction to include loads more of fan favourites Moira and Rita though at ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6: Release Date, Cast and Spoilers.
“I love all of our characters,” Miller told Digital Spy recently. “I could do a series… The Moira Show, I would watch. I would write it deliciously. Oh my God, I could do it. And Rita’s show.
“So we always have huge amounts of story that we’re not allowed to do. Huge flashbacks that we just don’t have real estate for. The network would give us an extra episode or two or three. But it’s the stories – we have to make this distilled.”
Miller added that his team would “wrap it up on our own terms” at ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6: Release Date, Cast and Spoilers.
“The book is so frustrating at the end, because the book just ends. And everybody’s like, ‘How could you, Bruce Miller… Who do you think you are, writing more?’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do, to write the rest.’ Because it’s like: what the hell happened?! Oh my God – it’s the most infuriating ending at ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6: Release Date, Cast and Spoilers.”
Moss also spoke further on what to expect between the complicated dynamic between June and Serena. Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on May 2, she said: “I’m the first person to be like, ‘Forget June, let’s focus on Serena for this episode’. Yvonne [Strahovski] said it so well when she said, ‘There’s no Serena without June, and there’s no June without Serena,’” she added. “And that’s so true. And so to me, the parallel stories, I love that part of the show so much. So I totally agree with the fans on this one.”
Meanwhile Mckenna Grace, who plays Esther, told Screen Rant on May 14 that she was “actually terrified” of what was to come this season: “I’m hoping that we’ll finally get to shoot the final season, but I have no idea what they’re going to make me do. I’m game – whatever they tell me, I’ll do it and I’m game – but I am a little terrified. With that show, you never know. You truly never know what’s going to happen.”
Is there going to be The Handmaid’s Tale spin-off?
Yes, and it’s already in the works. Showrunner Bruce Miller confirmed in November 2022 that he was working on another Atwood spin-off at ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6: Release Date, Cast and Spoilers.
It’s called The Testaments and will be loosely based on Atwood’s 2019 book of the same name. Miller told Deadline: “It’s so lovely to have another book to go to. I think the people [who] watch the TV show have to be comfortable with the fact that just like Handmaid’s didn’t follow the book, The Testaments is a sequel to this TV show.”
And in March 2023, it was announced that Miller would be leaving his post on The Handmaid’s Tale to focus exclusively on The Testaments.
How will The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 set up The Testaments?
As we’ve mentioned, main man Miller is off to set up Hulu’s spin-off series The Testaments, based on Attwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale of the same name. You might expect that to mean there’ll be a few plot points specifically setting up characters and places which we’ll see more of in that next show, but from what Elisabeth Moss has said it sounds more like it’ll be a case of leaving a few threads dangling by omission rather than addition at ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6: Release Date, Cast and Spoilers.
“I don’t think we feel an obligation to tie up the entire story of Gilead, especially not because we’ve got the sequel coming up in The Testaments,” Moss told Elle. “So we do have the opportunity to continue the story.”
Disney’s Craig Erwich told Deadline that it’d be “an extension of The Handmaid’s franchise so we have a very robust slate of scripted programming that we’re really excited about”. Which doesn’t really tell us much, but thanks Craig! Looking forward to a robust slate!
Where can I watch The Handmaid’s Tale series six?
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6: Release Date, Cast, and Spoilers will stream on Channel 4 and Amazon Prime in the UK, and Hulu in the US.