" It is unclear why Hulda is set to face backlash. The Margaret Atwood adaptation had a relatively slow start but has ramped up the action over the last few episodes. Episode 6 featured a particularly chilling scene where Aunt Lydia and Vidala were forced to watch Gilead soldiers execute dozens of women.
Producers cut an even more harrowing scene from Episode 6. According to Daily Mirror, director Jet Wilkinson described a scene where women shoot other women, and soldiers bring out women, give them guns, and hold guns to their heads. Wilkinson said it was very confronting, and they ended up cutting it.
In the cut scene, there is someone at the end of the line, a woman shooting as well as Aunt Lydia at that time, forced to do these brutal acts. The Testaments is a Hulu series based on Margaret Atwood's 2019 novel of the same name, serving as a spin-off of The Handmaid's Tale. The series follows two teenage girls, Agnes and Daisy, at a Gilead preparatory school.
Agnes is the biological daughter of June Osborne (Offred) from The Handmaid's Tale, originally named Hannah. Daisy is a spy sent from Toronto, Canada, to gather information for the Mayday resistance. In the novel, Daisy is actually June's second daughter, baby Nichole/Holly, but in the TV series, Daisy is not biologically related to June or Agnes, according to creator Bruce Miller.
The TV series is set four years after the end of The Handmaid's Tale, instead of 15 years like the book. In the novel, Agnes and Daisy's stories are told in alternating timelines and they meet later at Ardua Hall, but the show has them together at school from the start. In the novel, Agnes and her friend Becka become Aunts to avoid marriage, but this has not yet occurred in the show.
Ann Dowd reprises her role as Aunt Lydia, who runs the preparatory school. Elisabeth Moss returns as June Osborne, who is Daisy's handler. Nate Corddry stars as Agnes' adoptive father, Commander MacKenzie.
The character Daisy was code-named 'Danielle' in the script to keep her identity secret. The show focuses on a coming-of-age story with themes of friendship, rebellion, and challenging the system. The Handmaid's Tale ended with June and allies bombing a plane of Commanders, sparking a revolution that reclaimed Boston.
At the end of The Handmaid's Tale, June is still searching for her daughter Hannah. Margaret Atwood gave Bruce Miller a no-kill list for The Handmaid's Tale that included Aunt Lydia, June, and June's daughters. The show's tone is described as more optimistic with vibrant visual storytelling compared to The Handmaid's Tale.
The show premiered on April 8 with three episodes, and new episodes drop weekly until the season finale on May 27, 2026. The show is available for streaming on Disney+ in the UK.