Hulu has renewed The Testaments for a second season, moving to extend the series while its first season is still airing and eight episodes into a 10-episode run. The decision comes after the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale built a strong audience across Hulu and Disney+.
The streamer did not wait for the finale. The first season debuted with three episodes on April 8, and its fourth episode, available on April 15, drew a 20% viewership increase from the premiere after one day of streaming. By the time episode 8 was in view, that installment’s first-day views were up 76% from the premiere, and the available episodes had passed 45 million hours streamed globally.
That momentum had already shown up early. In its first eight days, The Testaments logged more than 11 million hours streamed globally across Hulu and Disney+, a pace that helped make the renewal a straightforward call for the company. Episode 9 was scheduled for May 20, and the season finale was slated for May 27, leaving the first season with two episodes still to go when the pickup was announced.
The Testaments is a coming-of-age story set in Gilead, following Agnes and Daisy as they navigate Aunt Lydia’s elite preparatory school for future wives. Elisabeth Moss returned for a guest appearance as June Osborn, tying the series more tightly to the world of The Handmaid’s Tale. The first season also averaged 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, another sign that the show has found both audience scale and critical support.
Gianna Sobol, who was a co-executive producer on season 1, will executive produce the next season. The series is based on Margaret Atwood’s Booker Prize-winning novel and is produced by MGM Television and 20th Television. For Hulu, the renewal says something simple: the audience arrived fast enough, and stayed long enough, to carry Testaments Season 2 from possibility to certainty before the first run had even finished.
