The Handmaid's Tale Star Offers Update on Final Season

Elisabeth Moss says production will begin this summer.

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Hulu confirmed in 2022 that Season 6 of The Handmaid's Tale would be its last, with star Elisabeth Moss finally offering an update on when we could expect the final episodes to be moving forward, as she teased production could start this summer. The first season of the adaptation of Margaret Atwood's story debuted in 2017 and, due to things like the coronavirus pandemic and last year's writers' and actors' strikes, it has never been a project that debuts new episodes on an annual basis, so while it's not a surprise that we've had so few updates, fans will likely be relieved to finally get new information about the highly anticipated program. 

"We are going back to shoot this summer. Our final season," Moss shared with Jimmy Kimmel Live!. On the topic of how long it's been since Season 5, Moss joked, "People are really starting to get upset. Especially when I tell them that we haven't even started shooting yet. Like, 'When is it coming back?' 'Well...' They get a little upset. It probably won't be [released] until maybe 2025."

With the series being based on Atwood's novel, which features an epilogue implying that the horrifying regime of Gilead has concluded, fans have wondered if the TV series will similarly feature the downfall of the society or if the show will explore other narrative threads. 

Like many major streaming hits, however, the conclusion of The Handmaid's Tale won't be the end of the franchise, as the spin-off series The Testaments, is already on the way.

"The Testaments was an independent curveball created by Margaret Atwood for the series I was working on. I think she had had it in her head for a while. I tried as much as possible, and I'm still trying, to not really make The Handmaid's Tale about The Testaments," showrunner Bruce Miller shared about the series to The Hollywood Reporter in 2022. "The Handmaid's Tale should be good on its own and when it's done, it should be a nice little TV set that you put on the shelf next to the novel, and it hopefully adds to your enjoyment of it, and then you can move onto The Testaments."

He adds, "The way Margaret did it, which is wonderful, is that you close one and you say, 'I don't have to open that. But let's open the next one and see what's in there. It could be anything.' It is a continuation, but it's more like a separate chapter. The horizons are more limitless."

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Stay tuned for updates on the future of The Handmaid's Tale.

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