Elisabeth Moss says the Handmaid’s Tale TV series won’t adapt The Testaments
Margaret Atwood’s sequel is too far removed from the TV series, The Invisible Man star says
After the success of Hulu and Channel 4’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, it was no surprise to see original book author Margaret Atwood finally bring out a sequel last year – but fans hoping to see storylines from The Testaments in the main series will be disappointed.
You see, according to star Elisabeth Moss (who plays rebellious Handmaid Offred/June Osbourne in the TV drama), there are no plans to include the later book’s plot, partially due to difficulties around the different time periods the two stories are set in.
“No, because it's a bit in the future, The Testaments,” Moss told RadioTimes.com when asked if the book could be involved in the main series.
“So no, we're leaving that to itself.”
Released by Atwood in 2019, The Testaments continues the story of Gilead around 15 years after the events of her original 1985 book (and the subsequent TV adaptation), with Moss’ character Offred largely absent while still playing a crucial background role in the story.
Previously, The Handmaid’s Tale’s creator Bruce Miller had suggested that the series would take the events of The Testaments into account when crafting future storylines, or even create a spin-off for it – but Moss explained that this doesn’t mean the plot of the book will ever make it to screen within the main series, or that she'd be involved if it did.
“God, that'd mean I'd be doing it for the next 15 years!” she laughed.
For now, Moss is more concerned with what other new roles she can fit in around her time filming as Offred, with the actress currently starring in a new horror-movie take on Universal classic The Invisible Man.
“It's told from the perspective of the victim of the Invisible Man,” Moss told us, “which was Leigh Whannell, our writer/director's idea. And really kind of revolutionary.”
“There's a way that you can do something with a genre film, or even speculative fiction like The Handmaid's Tale, where you can cloak the bigger idea within something scarier, more entertaining, with all the bells and whistles.
“I read it, and I was immediately hooked on like the first 10 pages, which is the opening of the movie, and I felt like 'oh this is super super different than anything I could have expected this movie to be,” she concluded.
The Invisible Man is in UK cinemas from Friday 28th February
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
