Inside The Handmaid's Tale series finale: Elisabeth Moss reflects on show's ending, says 'I can't imagine...'

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6 days ago

Elisabeth Moss on The Handmaid's Tale ending
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Season 6 of The Handmaid's Tale finally coming to an end and fans are having to cope with the fact that it's also the end of the series. Now that The Handmaid's Tale has officially come to an end, Elisabeth Moss has opened up about the conclusion of the series that defined a significant part of her career. After nearly a decade of portraying June Osborne, Moss shared in a recent interview with Variety that she couldn't have envisioned a more perfect farewell for both the character and the show.'I loved (the series' ending). As someone who has lived telling this story for nine years, I can't imagine it ending any other way," she said.The Emmy-winning actor highlighted the show's final scene as a deeply resonant moment — both personally and for the audience. 'When she begins, 'A chair, a table, a lamp'... that moment is everything I hope for as a viewer,' she said. 'People ask, 'Is that the original voiceover? Is that how the book opens?'' For Elisabeth, this direct nod to Margaret Atwood's original prose wasn't just intentional — it was what she called 'television gold.'She expressed her complete support for the creative choice to end the series that way. 'I wouldn't have agreed to anything that didn't feel like the perfect conclusion to this story,' she said. 'From the very first episode, this series has always been about one core idea. It's what drew me in from the beginning — and it's the same truth we're delivering in that final scene.'At its heart, the story has always centered on June's battle — not just to save her children, but to protect future generations from the horrors of Gilead. 'That's been her mission all along, and it's still her mission in the final scene. The fact that the show ends where it began — that's just so f**king brilliant. And I can say that because it wasn't my idea,' she added with a laugh. 'There's no clearer way to define the show than her narrating her own story.'Yes, it's true—The Handmaid's Tale is ending with Season 6. After a gripping run, the series is wrapping up its story, having long surpassed the events of Margaret Atwood's original novel. Over the seasons, viewers have followed June through escapes, returns, and revolts against Gilead, and the show's creators have been planning this final chapter for some time."It's been a very, very, very luxurious time that I've had to think about what happens at the end of this story and exactly how we'd like to get there as a company," creator and showrunner Bruce Miller told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022, when the final season was announced.Unlikely—but there's good news. Hulu is already developing a sequel series based on Atwood's follow-up novel, The Testaments. Set several years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the new show will feature familiar characters and follow the lives of three women: Agnes (June's daughter, Hannah), Daisy (June's other daughter, Nicole), and the ever-persistent Aunt Lydia.Production is already underway, and while there's no official release date yet, it's expected to premiere sometime next year. So we won't have to wait too long to revisit the dark world of Gilead.