Why There Will Be No Season 7 For 'The Handmaid's Tale'
However, all is not lost as the show is making way for a televised version of The Testaments, Margaret Atwood's follow-up sequel to her original novel, which takes place several years after the end of The Handmaid's Tale.
But just why did the team behind the show decide to make season six the last series?
The decision was announced in 2022 just as the fifth season started to air that the sixth would be the last. But show creator Bruce Miller admitted that he'd had the arc of the show in mind for even longer.
In an interview back in 2022 with The Hollywood Reporter, he spoke about the show finishing with a sixth season, saying: '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. I'm very glad we're able to do it on our own terms because I know how lucky that makes us — all the actors and creative people who put their hearts and souls into it — to close up the play the way you want. Dropping the curtain the way you want is such a huge privilege.'
He added: 'I've been thinking about the end since the beginning. I've been thinking about the end of this story since I read The Handmaid's Tale the first time. It's one of those books that when you finish reading it, all you think about is the end. So in the end, story-wise, we've been able to stay pretty close to what we had thought, from our initial discussions and what Lizzy [star Elisabeth Moss] and I had talked about, and what Margaret and I had talked about.'
Of course, in some ways, the ending of the show will have to be dictated by what is to come in The Testaments — but it seems Miller enjoyed the challenge.
'The Testaments was an independent curveball created by Margaret Atwood for the series I was working on,' he said at the time. '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. 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.'
Fans will be reassured though to know that filming on The Testaments has started, so while there's no official date for it to start yet, you won't have to wait too long. And of course, you can pick up the book too — the audiobook is especially good, having been voiced by several actors including Ann Dowd, Bryce Dallas Howard and Mae Whitman.
The Handmaid's Tale season six is available to stream on Channel 4 now.
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