The much-anticipated final season of The Handmaid’s Tale is officially in progress.
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| Elizabeth Moss on set of 'The Handmaid's Tale' final season. Courtesy of Disney |
On Friday, Hulu revealed an image of Elisabeth Moss, the series lead, holding a slate from the first day of filming for the show’s sixth and concluding season. The slate indicates that filming began on September 3, with Moss directing the first episode—having previously directed six episodes across seasons four and five.
The Disney-owned streaming service also announced that the sixth season will premiere in the spring of 2025, creating approximately a 2 1/2-year gap between the season five finale, which aired on November 9, 2022, and the opening of the final season.
Production had originally been set to resume in the fall of 2023, but was delayed due to ongoing contract negotiations between striking writers, actors, and media companies. Additionally, coordinating the cast's schedules pushed the start date to this week.
Season five concluded with a cliffhanger as June (Moss) and other refugees from Gilead attempted to escape Toronto, seeking safe passage to Hawaii, which, in the show's universe, remains part of the diminished United States.
After the episode aired, showrunner Bruce Miller reassured fans in an interview with Reporter that June's fate isn't in too much jeopardy: “The show exists because June survived,” Miller explained. “The only reason the show is recorded history, in our fictional world, is because she documented it. So, she has to survive, because that's inherently what makes this story exist.”
Although Miller will continue as an executive producer for the final season, he stepped down from showrunning duties in 2023 to concentrate on Hulu’s follow-up series, The Testaments, which, like The Handmaid’s Tale, is adapted from a novel by Margaret Atwood. Writers and executive producers Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang are taking the reins for the final season.
The cast for the final season includes Yvonne Strahovski, Bradley Whitford, Max Minghella, Ann Dowd, O.T. Fagbenle, Samira Wiley, Madeline Brewer, Amanda Brugel, Sam Jaeger, Ever Carradine, and Josh Charles.
MGM Television produces The Handmaid’s Tale. Executive producers include Miller, Warren Littlefield, Tuchman, Chang, Moss, Sheila Hockin, John Weber, Frank Siracusa, Steve Stark, Kim Todd, Daniel Wilson, and Fran Sears.