When The Handmaid’s Tale returns for its sixth and final season, it will be under new leadership.
Bruce Miller, who has been at the wheel of the Hulu hit since its premiere in 2017, is stepping down.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang will serve as co-showrunners for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6.
The reason for the switcheroo is to allow Miller to focus on The Testaments, a long-in-the-works spinoff.
As previously reported, The Testaments is based on Margaret Atwood’s sequel novel.
Despite handing over day-to-day duties to Tuchman and Chang, Miller is still expected to write two episodes of the concluding chapter of the Elisabeth Moss-headlined drama series.
The Testaments has been in the works since 2019, and it’s currently unclear how the end of the original series will set up the spinoff.
News broke in September 2022 that June’s journey would come to an end with the sixth season of The Handmaid’s Tale.
“It’s been a very, very, very luxurious time that I’ve had to think about what happens at the end of this story and exactly how we’d like to get there as a company,” Miller told THR at the time.
“I’m very glad we’re being able to do it on our own terms because I know how lucky that makes us — all the actors and creative people who put their hearts and souls into it — to close up the play the way you want.”
“Dropping the curtain the way you want is such a huge privilege,” he adds.
The good news is that Miller has been thinking about the endgame for the series since the beginning.
“I’ve been thinking about the end of this story since I read The Handmaid’s Tale the first time. It’s one of those books that when you finish reading it, all you think about is the end,” he explained to the outlet.
“So in the end, story-wise, we’ve been able to stay pretty close to what we had thought, from our initial discussions and what Lizzy and I had talked about, and what Margaret and I had talked about.”
Bringing the series to an end will be difficult, but fans will be interested in seeing what comes next for the franchise.
What are your thoughts on the show under new leadership?
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.