Elisabeth Moss Says June Was Always in The Testaments
Elisabeth Moss says June Osborne was always going to turn up in The Testaments, and that she knew for years the story would not end with Hannah getting out of Gilead. In a new interview, Moss framed that choice as the bridge that lets The Handmaid's Tale end cleanly while the sequel keeps June moving.
“We always knew that June was going to be in it,” Moss said. She added, “I had known for years from Bruce [Miller, who created both The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments] that June wasn’t going to get Hannah out [at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale].”
June’s path into season one
June appears at the end of the first episode of The Testaments, then stays in the season as a mentor to Daisy, the Toronto girl who infiltrates Gilead as a Mayday operative. By the end of season one, June agrees to let Daisy try her own tactics, with an emphasis on minimizing collateral damage. That gives the sequel a working relationship rather than a simple handoff.
Hannah is the same age as Daisy, and in The Testaments she is known as Agnes. Agnes is one of Daisy’s closest friends, which gives June a direct link to the child she lost when Gilead took Hannah as a toddler. Moss said that link was part of the larger plan she and Bruce Miller were carrying from the start.
Bruce Miller and Margaret Atwood
Moss said the decision was further locked in when Margaret Atwood wrote the sequel novel and Hannah still did not get out. She also said the most important thing was making sure The Handmaid’s Tale could end in a way that made sense for that show and for The Testaments. That is a tighter landing than most franchise endings get.
The casting stayed carefully secret at first, and Moss said it was difficult not to tell fans that June’s story was not over. Her own words make the strategy plain: “What’s more, [Miller and I] knew that I was going to have multiple [Testaments] episodes and that there was going to be an arc and a larger plan for June.”
Season two stays open
Moss said it is too early to know how June might factor into season two, but she also set the ceiling high. “I would never want to stop playing her,” she said. “As long as there’s a Gilead, she’s never going to stop fighting.”
That is the useful takeaway for viewers: June is not a one-scene bridge between shows, and the franchise is not treating Hannah’s fate as a closed chapter. Moss and Miller built the connection to leave room for more, and Moss says there has to be “so much more story” to explore through the next generation of actors.
