‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ to continue in new series with Ann Dowd and more
Hulu
The Handmaid’s Tale will get a follow-up series after it concludes its sixth and final season.
Hulu announced Tuesday that Margaret Atwood‘s 2019 novel, The Testaments, which is a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, is being developed into a new series.
The streaming platform announced the news in an Instagram post with a photo of the series’ stars gathered during a table reading.
The post stated that production on The Testaments will begin April 7, and Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss will serve as an executive producer on the series.
Atwood’s novel takes place in the dystopian theocracy of Gilead, 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale.
It is narrated by three women: Agnes, a young woman living in Gilead; Daisy, a young woman living in Canada; and Aunt Lydia, who is a previous character from The Handmaid’s Tale and is portrayed by Ann Dowd in the hit Hulu series. Dowd will return to the role in the new series.
According to Hulu, The Testaments series is a “coming of age story that finds a new generation of young women in Gilead grappling with the bleak future that awaits them.”
Also starring in The Testaments are Girl Meets World star Rowan Blanchard as Shunammite, Chase Infiniti as Agnes, Lucy Halliday as Daisy, and Mattea Conforti as Becka.
The sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale will arrive April 8 on Hulu with the first three episodes.
Joey Bada$$ is back on Power Book III: Raising Kanan, though his character, Unique, was nearly killed off in the show’s third season.
A fan-favorite on the cast, he tells ABC Audio it was “actually dope to see how much love and appreciation people have for the character in the event of his ‘demise.’ But it was also cool to see how people felt when they found out, ‘Oh, s***, he’s actually not gone,’ too.”
As seen in the first two episodes of season 4, Unique survived with the help of an under-the-radar doctor, who warned his injuries could lead to personality changes if he didn’t receive professional help. Those changes are coupled with his desire to seek vengeance against Raq and all those who he felt had conspired against him.
Joey says it’s different than the vengeance Unique’s brother sought in season 3 because Ronnie had “more of, like, a social disorder.” While he notes that they had similarities in their anger and frustration, he says Unique was previously “able to contain that and use it to his advantage and, like, be smart about it.”
“I think now with the brain injury he’s way more prone to flying off the handle,” Joey adds. That showed up when Unique killed Raq’s lawyer after secretly seeing the two and assuming they were together. When asked whether any of that had to do with Unique loving Raq, Joey says, “There’s a lot of conflicting ideas, thoughts and emotions going on in his head, but I think they’re all scrambled because of the brain injury.”
The third chapter of the House of the Dragon story is underway.
Production on season 3 of the Game of Thrones prequel series has started, HBO announced on Monday. The third season of the drama series will consist of eight episodes that are currently being filmed in the United Kingdom.
Along with the news of the third season beginning production, HBO announced two new cast members joining the show. TommyFlanagan has joined as Sir Roderick Dustin, while Dan Fogler has joined in the role of Sir Torrhen Manderly.
James Norton is also new to the show for season 3. He was previously announced to be playing the role of Ormund Hightower.
The returning cast includes Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifans, Fabien Frankel, EwanMitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno, Bethany Antonia, Jefferson Hall, Tom Bennett, Kurt Egyiawan and FreddieFox.
House of the Dragon is based on George R. R. Martin‘s Fire & Blood. The story is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, centering on House Targaryen.
Marvel announced the cast of Avengers: Doomsday during a livestream and on its social media channels on Wednesday. It also revealed that the film is now in production.
During the five-hour long livestream, many of the film’s cast members were revealed via their names appearing on the back of a long line of director’s chairs.
They include Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent, Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov, Winston Duke as M’Baku and Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr.
Superheroes that audiences have yet to see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will also join this new ensemble. This includes the new Fantastic Four crew of Pedro Pascal, who plays Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby, who plays Sue Storm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm. All four actors make their Marvel debut in the upcoming film The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which releases in theaters on July 25.
Lewis Pullman also joins the movie in the role of Bob Reynolds, or Sentry. He debuts as the character in the upcoming film Thunderbolts*, which releases on May 2.
Notably, many actors from the X-Men franchise have joined the film, including Patrick Stewart. He famously played Professor Charles Xavier and previously made a cameo in the 2022 film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Kelsey Grammer has also joined the film’s cast. He previously reprised his X-Men role of Beast in the post-credits scene of the 2023 film The Marvels. Ian McKellen will also appear in the film. He previously played Magneto in the X-Men films. AlanCumming, who played Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, is also set to be in the movie, along with Rebecca Romijn, who played Mystique in the X-Men franchise and James Marsden, who played Cyclops.
Channing Tatum will also appear in the film. He previously appeared in the 2024 blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine as Gambit.
The livestream ended with an appearance from Robert Downey Jr. The only person to appear in the announcement, he turned to look at the camera, before gesturing to the long line of chairs representing the large ensemble cast.
It was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024 that Downey would make his return to the MCU in the upcoming Avengers film. Instead of playing Iron Man, however, Downey will play the villain Doctor Doom.
Avengers: Doomsday finds brothers Joe and Anthony Russo back in the directors chairs. They return to Marvel after having helmed the two Captain America films Winter Solider and Civil War, as well as Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
Avengers: Doomsday crashes into movie theaters on May 1, 2026.
Disney is the parent company of Marvel and ABC News.
