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in CovenantsLucy Halliday plays Daisy, a Toronto teen turned secret Mayday agent at Gilead’s girls’ school. She’s the character that brought Elisabeth Moss’s June Osborn back into the series – as June is Daisy’s therapist. Moss’ on-screen return was an acting coup that was kept secret until Hulu came along The Handmaid’s Tale The sequel series premiered. (Daisy is also named “Danielle” in the script to keep Halliday’s character under wraps.)
In Margaret Atwood Covenants The novel on which the series is based, but Daisy’s character is completely different. In that story (Spoiler of the book!) Daisy is actually John’s second daughter The Handmaid’s Tale Viewers know the baby as Nicole/Holly. But when creator Bruce Miller and his team decided to jump the sequel series forward just four years after the finale The Handmaid’s Taleinstead of 15 years like the writers, they had to make this major character change. So Miller turned her into someone the same age as the lead character, Agnes — June’s first daughter, played by Chase Infinity. Daisy is not biologically related to John or Agnes, but Miller was careful to preserve the essence of Daisy’s character – she is a fighter, like John (and Agnes).
Below, Miller explains this major change and also looks ahead to how many seasons he’s hoping for Covenants Whether he has a final scene in mind or not remains to be seen.
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When we did our oral history at the end The Handmaid’s TaleYou’ve revealed that Margaret Atwood gave you a no-kill list for the series as soon as she started writing Covenants. You cannot kill Aunt Lydia (returning character played by Ann Dowd), June, or any of June’s daughters. But when she decided to jump forward four years, instead of 15, it complicated baby Holly, because that would make her four years old instead of a teenager like the original character Daisy in the book. How did you decide to update Daisy into the character we see Lucy Halliday playing, and was that the biggest change you made?
Yes, it was the biggest challenge. When making MaidsI followed a policy of “if in doubt, follow Margaret”. And it worked very well. Not just out of loyalty to her or the book, but in practical terms, she’s a very good storyteller. Sometimes there are things I don’t understand, even though I’ve been reading this book for 30 years, and it’s great to be able to bring that into the show and it’s really interesting, even though I didn’t quite know how it was going to go.
Even with CovenantsI was trying hard to do the same thing. There are differences in timelines between the show and the book. TV goes to a different place. She can go anytime with a novel. In the novel Covenantsthe characters of Daisy and Agnes differ greatly in age. Therefore, they will never be together like they are in the show.
I didn’t want to make any changes at all, but I felt like I wanted Daisy and Agnes to be together physically, and not tell their stories 15 years apart like they do in the book. So it was very difficult and I didn’t want to do it, but Daisy is not Nicole/Holly. Holly is in the series as a child – you see her shoes in one scene and there are a few hints that she is there. But I tried to change as little as I could.
I tried to make June a mother figure in Daisy [Halliday]Hayat – a mother figure who is absent, but a mother figure she knows. June had the same bad reputation as Nicole had in the book. I tried to choose someone who resembled or was reminiscent of June. I tried to keep the essence of Nicole as much as possible with Daisy, but still make her her own character and her own person. I had to make a decision. I didn’t want to bend time and tell everyone that the time-space continuum was incorrect.
The Handmaid’s Tale It was a pivotal series for Hulu and ran for six seasons. How many seasons have you thought about or planned for? Covenants? I know with maidyou’ve always had a vision of what the final scene of the series would be like. Do you have the same end vision that you are working towards? Covenants?
I have a sense of where I want to end up, but I don’t have a scene of where I want to go. In terms of seasons, the answer is that when I start working on any project, you want to be able to think of 200 episodes’ worth of ideas. Because if you’re crazy successful, you don’t want to say, “I’m a failure. I don’t have stuff.” You want to feel like you have a real collection of stories.
But realistically, just thinking about how the world works, I wanted to have an ending. It can’t be like an old TV show that just ends. That would be very unsatisfactory. So I think in order to try to wrap it up in a satisfactory way in the business environment that we live in, I’m thinking about 30 to 50 episodes. So three to five seasons.
And then, if we’re lucky enough to get that, or we’re lucky enough to get a second season, it’ll all be great. But I want to make sure I don’t paint myself into a corner. I’m always excited. If they decide I can do 10 more, that’s great. This cast is so great. We can write Agnes scenes for the rest of our lives. It’s great.
How would you say you’ve written a finale that defines where you want to go in Season 2?
The first season is about awakening. Your romantic awakening, your sexual awakening, the way your body wakes up when you’re 14 or 15 years old. And the way your mind opens to justice. That’s the theme of the season – their awakening to where they are and the world they live in. By the end of the season, these truths become even more exposed. Ultimately, you want them to truly understand where they are and what their future holds. At some point, she’ll find out more about her past, so Season 2 will be about: Who am I? I’m awake, but who’s awake? Who am I?
with The Handmaid’s Talewe always talked about how John told the story, which meant it survived. Do you want a similar feeling to CovenantThe voices of those telling this story that we hear from women who have left Gilead?
I like the practical part of it, because half the show is voiceover. If you can’t tell your actor what room they’re doing voiceover in – what they’re reading from or where that memory comes from. You have to come up with something real specific: “Daisy, you’re sitting in this room with a tape recorder, and you’ve got loose paper that you’ve written in blue pen, and you’ve written all these notes as you’re reading it.” Just saying “do the voiceover” doesn’t work.
They certainly all survived to record these things Commandments. But none of us stay alive forever. No one survives forever.
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Covenants It is now streaming the first four episodes, with new episodes released every Wednesday on Hulu. RRead more from THRDisplay coverage.
