‘The Testaments’ Solid on How Their Present Mirrors Our Actual-Life Dystopia

The Testaments arrives this week, bringing viewers again to the world of The Handmaid’s Tale with a special perspective. This time round, we dive into Gilead’s misogynistic, oppressive regime from the point of view of teenage girls who’re being groomed to wed the nation’s elite leaders.

The present’s primary characters could be the daughters of highly effective Commanders, however because the present itself explicitly explains in its opening moments, privilege doesn’t shield them from Gilead’s prodigious violence. That features emotional and bodily abuse inflicted by dad and mom, lecturers, and different adults they’re imagined to belief. It additionally encompasses the phobia that flows by way of the air in Gilead, the place breaking a rule might imply having a finger chopped off—or one thing a lot, a lot worse.

Whereas The Testaments is a piece of fiction, a worst-case state of affairs of the non secular proper elevated to absolute energy, the brand new present can at instances really feel like a mirrored image of our actuality. Similar to The Handmaid’s Tale, the Margaret Atwood adaptation creates a world that feels eerily like one thing that might probably occur.

At a current Testaments press day, io9 requested the solid and showrunner Bruce Miller in the event that they thought their present can be obtained equally to The Handmaid’s Story in that respect—will viewers choose up on parallels between the its story and our real-life dystopia? We additionally requested if that was one thing they thought of whereas they had been making the present.

“Sure, certainly,” Ann Dowd mentioned. She returns to The Testaments as Aunt Lydia, the character she received an Emmy for taking part in in The Handmaid’s Story. “The remedy of girls, dropping Roe v. Wade, the rise of the white man as ruler of the day, patriarchal society, the terribly harmful particular person we now have as president—you couldn’t get extra related. Authoritarianism, the entire thing. It’s terrifying.”

Mabel Li, who performs Aunt Lydia’s colleague Aunt Vidala, agreed. “Completely. It was on my thoughts your entire time as properly. I believe what Margaret Atwood does so extremely is that she exhibits how fascist states are created and maintained, and I believe sadly we’re seeing that internationally.”

The youthful solid members additionally felt the significance of the legacy they’re carrying on.

“I believe we had been conscious about the affect that The Handmaid’s Story had had in actual time,” mentioned Lucy Halliday, who performs Daisy. “The costume of The Handmaid’s Story turned emblematic for protest in actuality, and the load of that precedent was felt by us moving into this world as a result of we need to do it justice, and we would like individuals to really feel represented or impressed by The Testaments the identical means that they did for The Handmaid’s Story.”

She continued. “And I believe what did resonate with viewers [are] there are such a lot of aspects of The Handmaid’s Story and The Testaments that they might see themselves in or that they’ve skilled of their lives … I’d wish to assume The Testaments continues to resonate with audiences or individuals proceed to really feel represented in a means or empowered in a means that The Handmaid’s Story additionally does.”

Chase Infiniti, who performs Agnes, agreed. “It’s one thing that we had been conscious of whereas we had been capturing,” she mentioned. “However I believe additionally a whole lot of it that comes into play, particularly with The Handmaid’s Story, is the unique books that Margaret Atwood wrote are primarily based off of historical past. All of the occasions that occur should not, I suppose, authentic in that sense. The Handmaid’s Story and The Testaments … may also be a cautionary story in a means, but additionally a strategy to maintain a mirror as much as society as a result of there are issues that occur within the present which can be sadly nonetheless taking place as we speak.”

Showrunner Bruce Miller echoed the identical ideas. “I do assume [with] The Testaments individuals will discover a whole lot of parallels with our world. That’s what I’ve at all times present in Margaret’s work: she places her finger on these friction factors that by no means appeared to go away.”

“I learn The Handmaid’s Story once I was in school, after which I made [the show] 30 years later. Folks mentioned, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s precisely when you need to have [made it].’ [But] wherever alongside these 30 years once I learn it, I used to be like, ‘Wow, it looks as if she wrote it for this time.’”

“I hope individuals like the tv present and are entertained, and I hope they give it some thought that deeply. That may be great. However given Margaret’s observe file when it comes to prescience, I might guess that there are issues in there which can be issues ladies have been battling—a majority of girls have been battling—in our world for a really very long time.”

The primary three episodes of The Testaments arrive April 8 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, with a weekly rollout thereafter.

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