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Calabash will draw inspiration from Margaret Atwoodbooks—but what big changes happened? The Handmaid’s Tale Derivatives?
Adapted from Atwood’s novel of the same name, The Handmaid’s Tale, Broadcast from 2017 to 2025The story takes place in a dystopian future where low fertility rates have resulted in women being assigned to men to bear children.
Hulu show draws inspiration from Atwood’s source material, then expands will. The story is set 15 years later – at least in the book – and the subsequent narrator is Ann DowdAunt Lydia takes viewers into a dystopian future, alongside characters like Agnes from Gilead and Daisy from Canada. Together they secretly collect criminal information about the Gilead regime and smuggle it out of the country. Agnes and Daisy pretended to be “Pearl Girls” and sneaked into Canada, while Aunt Lydia was a secret informant within Gilead.
“While I can’t continue telling Offred’s story, I can continue telling the beginning of the end with three other people connected to these events, because we know from ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ that Gilead is gone,” Atwood told reporters at a 2019 event. “Two hundred years later, it no longer exists because they’re doing workshops on it. How did it collapse? How do these regimes disappear? I’m interested in exploring that.”
She continued: “There are some new costume choices in the book. Humans throughout have loved costumes that tell you who you’re looking at, like a football team and stuff like that. So, yeah, we’ve got some new costumes.”
when will Premiering in April 2026, creator Bruce Miller Explained what they pulled from the page – and what they don’t have.
“I wasn’t necessarily going to do things in the order they happened in the book, but to move the major central elements into a timeline that made as much sense as possible,” Miller told The Hollywood Reporter. “We definitely tried to follow the overall story of the book, but the ins and outs of the actual storyline were difficult because the characters were of different ages and we had to redefine the Daisy character to keep things practical in our world.”
miller Also want to expand in some areas.
“On The Handmaiden , there’s always something to dig into. Up until last season, we were digging into pieces. There were a lot of these things that were very vaguely referenced in the book, and we said, ‘Oh, let’s bring this seed out and let it bloom,'” he continued. “But this is Margaret’s world, and that’s what we should be tapping into. She’s a very good storyteller, so if we’re going to do something different than what Margaret did, we need a reason. I’m trying to (adapt) as best I can because I think it works in the book for a reason, not because I have a general allegiance to the book.”
Keep scrolling to see the biggest differences between the show and the books:
time jump difference
Atwood’s book was released 15 years later, but the spin-off is set four years later After the events of The Handmaid’s Tale Series finale.
Daisy’s true identity
Atwood’s version of “The Testaments” uses Daisy as the name of the daughter (Holly) of Nicole (aka Joan) (Elisabeth Moss) and Nick (Max Minghella). to the end of the year The Handmaid’s Tale.
Daisy is not Holly from the TV show – mostly because of the time jump.
Hulu Hulu’s highly anticipated The Handmaid’s Tale spinoff The Testaments is in the works — but what do we know about the show so far? Margaret Atwood’s dystopian universe first came to life in The Handmaid’s Tale, an adaptation of the novel of the same name that tells a low-fertility future (…)
Lydia’s backstory is being explored
Ann Dowd teased Lydia would become a school teacher in TV ahead of The Testaments premiere, while the book reveals she’s a family court judge.
General timetable
Creator Bruce Miller Confirms ‘Testament’ The first quarter will cover The first part of Atwood’s novel Since “The Handmaid’s Tale” was based on a book for six seasons, “The Testaments” may also take liberties if it succeeds on Hulu.
