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[Thisstorycontainsmajorspoilersfromthethree-episodepremiere[ThisstorycontainsMAJORspoilersfromthethree-episodepremiereofCovenants.]
The Handmaid’s Tale Viewers (including this writer) had one big question regarding the sequel series Covenants: How will June work?
The character that made Elisabeth Moss a household name is over The Handmaid’s Tale Series is on a mission to never give up fighting for her first daughter, Hannah/Agnes, who was kidnapped by Gilead. But June has vowed to do so in secret by continuing to lead the resistance movement called Mayday, and Moss and the show’s creative team behind Hulu’s groundbreaking hit have sealed their lips on whether June’s end means she could appear on screen when the world of Gilead returns with… Covenants.
Now that Covenants – Hulu and MGM’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s follow-up novel The Handmaid’s Tale – has released its first three episodes, and the secret is finally out: June is back! Revealed in the final moments of the premiere in what creator Bruce Miller calls Below creator Bruce Miller’s superhero-like introduction, her connection to this new story is explained in episode three, when she becomes Mayday’s handler for Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a new character entering Gilead as a secret “Pearl Girl” who befriends John’s taken daughter, Agnes (Chase Infinity). However, it is not yet clear whether June knows that she sent Daisy to where her daughter is being raised in Gilead.
Below, Miller, creator The Handmaid’s Tale and Covenantsleaks when they made the call to bring June back on screen, whether Moss needed any convincing (hint: she didn’t) and how they kept this huge secret. “You really want those scenes to feel particularly epic,” he says. THR. “There’s a superhero side to June that we wanted to be in this, because her shadow looms over the entire show. She looms over everything.”
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The biggest question I tried to get out of you at the end The Handmaid’s Tale – Which you won’t tell me! — It was if June appeared in Covenants. I’m so excited to see her do it. When did you decide that John would have a role in this show?
There are two answers. From the beginning, I felt like June was going to end The Handmaid’s Tale With some unfinished business, so if you’re going back to Gilead, you might want to know what John’s been doing. She is doing something, she has not retired from the dramatic process. It made sense. Even in the book, CovenantsJune works from abroad. You just don’t see it. So that was always an option.
June will always be on this show. It’s a show about her daughter, and she’s sure to be very curious about what happened and be as influential in that life as possible. It made sense. Then Elizabeth of course [Moss] He was such a creative partner The Handmaid’s Tale With me and Warren [Littlefield, executive producer]. I directed and we worked as closely as possible with anyone. It was absolutely amazing. So the opportunity to bring her back in this role came from the fact that she has been back in all of her other roles. She’s an executive producer on this show. She is our creative partner. I really felt like if we had the opportunity, we could bring June to the show in a very natural way because we didn’t have to do a show for June. We can bring it up when it affects one of our other stories.
Did Elisabeth Moss need any convincing to play June again?
I don’t think it took much arm-twisting for Elizabeth to say yes. (He laughs.) She was so excited, I felt so happy. It’s one of the great joys of my creative life to watch her do what she does, and watching her again is truly wonderful. But I definitely feel like the “unfinished business” we have with June is part of what this show is about, and to see how that plays out — it would be weird for Agnes to feel this anxious about who her mother is if we never see her mother.
When it came to knowing how many episodes June could appear in, did the story push that? Lizzie is busy with other shows. How much of this was a dance with her schedule?[[Note: June appears in upcoming episodes this season.]
All of these things are just right, and it’s always a balance between the very everyday practical and the very heavy art. So what I tried to do was stay in, “Let’s figure out a good story for June. What are you going to do in these episodes?” And then I try to be flexible because Elisabeth Moss has a very busy schedule. She’s a very busy artist and does a lot of crazy, cool, interesting things, and I want her to keep doing that. To film the show, she has to be physically there. It’s not something you can do over Zoom. So we had to think about that. What I got was a sense of how long I would spend with her. Whether it was a day, two days, or a week, then I started to see how many episodes I could use it in and what stories I could tell. It ends up being practical. loves, How can she access this group? But within that practicality, you really want those scenes to feel particularly epic.
It has not been leaked that she will be playing June again. Did you hide it in the texts? Did you cover it on set? What lengths did you go to?
We hid it in the scripts, for sure. There was too much to keep her away from. definitely.
Did it have a symbolic name in the texts?
Yes, she had a code name.
Can you tell me what it was?
no. (He laughs.) “Rocket Woman” was not her codename maid. You can only watch once the first time. I just want to make it easier if people don’t want to hear spoilers so they don’t hear them and have a more enjoyable experience. That’s it. I want to make this experience unique. Lizzie, Warren and I all have a very old-fashioned sense of drama. We love episodes with a cliffhanger ending, and I’d hang someone off a literal cliff if it took me to do so. Margaret [Atwood] He makes fun of how dramatic her slut is, and I think Lizzie thinks keeping the secret will be great when it’s revealed. She has a good nose. And Warren, well, he made some offers.
The reveal about June at the end of the first episode was exciting. How much creative brainstorming went into this scene that slowly shows us that June is back? Did you shoot alternate versions?
We put in a lot of effort, mostly with Mike Parker, who was directing, and Greta, our director [Zozula]. Mike directed these first three episodes. He really closed the show with a look that said, “How can we get through it maid And you still make it beautiful?
There’s a superhero side to June that we wanted to be in this, because her shadow looms over the entire show. Her hands are spread all over the show, but you don’t really see them. So I wanted it to feel like it was looming over everything. So bringing her to us in this scene, for Mike as a director, was revealing how much we knew about her. That’s when you come up behind her – if you’ve watched The Handmaid’s Taleyou’ll say, “Well, this is June.” You can tell that just by the way you stand. But even if you come in and wonder, “Who is this?” As the show ends, there should be no barrier to not knowing anything and moving on to the next story.
It cuts to Agnes, who gets her period and the whole story begins – and there’s someone watching Daisy, and we later find out who it is. We really wanted to keep it a surprise and make the reveal the only interesting part. The audience is very smart, and it’s worth trying to keep that fun alive.
He comes in the role of A The Handmaid’s Tale Viewer, knowing what I know, I watch these early episodes and think, “Of course, Aunt Lydia [Ann Dowd] Know who Agne is Yes, because she has access to bloodlines. I thought Daisy’s arrival must be due to Lydia and John working together, but the show doesn’t say that, at least not in these first three episodes. Are you trying to keep that a mystery, as to whether Lydia knows Agnes’s true identity and whether Aunt Lydia and John are working together?
Yes. I’ve done a lot of research into how these kind of insurgencies work and the networks within them. They know nothing about who they are talking to on the other side. They may be talking to their brother on the other end of the chain, but they don’t know it. If they found out, it would be very dangerous for everyone. All these people are kind of isolated. And if I were Lydia, I wouldn’t tell John. Are you going to tell John that your daughter is at her school? Not in a million years. She was going to do something crazy. So it makes sense for this type of operation that Daisy knows one person who is in Mayday in the whole place, and that’s her handler John and that’s it.
This is the reason why these resistance movements succeed. How can they survive for more than a year? They are very secretive, because you see how much pressure they are under. They don’t have to know specifically who they’re talking to or have an idea where that person is or who they might be. But with Lydia and John, they saw each other at the end of[[The Handmaid’s Tale]the end. I don’t know that they’ve seen each other since, but they know they’re out there somewhere. June knows that at the end of this message train it is Lydia, and somewhere at the end of this message train Lydia knows that it is June. I think they have enough experience together to adjust how they trust each other, and it’s interesting to watch. You can see from a distance how Lydia feels a certain way as she watches June’s daughter. She feels like she’s been watching her from the beginning. It’s one of the first things she says: “I’ve been watching you for a long time.” And Agnes says, “Oh, crap.”
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Covenants It is now streaming its first three episodes, with new episodes released at 9pm PT/12am ET Tuesdays on Hulu. Head here for Refresh information on how to The Handmaid’s Tale Prove Covenants.
