Chase Infiniti, one of the most exciting new actors on the scene, grins when she says, “My year has, quite literally, been insane. But it’s been incredible.” At 25, the rising star is fresh off the kind of awards-season whirlwind most actors spend a lifetime chasing. Playing Leonardo DiCaprio’s daughter in One Battle After Another, Infiniti found herself nominated across multiple Best Supporting Actress categories — an arrival, not just a debut.
She has followed that momentum with a striking turn in The Testaments, the long-anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel. Set 15 years after the original, the series revisits the brutal theocracy of Gilead through a new generation — most notably Agnes, played by Infiniti, the daughter of Elisabeth Moss’s June, left behind when her mother escaped.
Agnes’s world is rigid, ritualistic and terrifyingly controlled. Girls are categorised and colour-coded: “plums” in purple, not yet of childbearing age, shifting into bright green once they menstruate — a visual cue that they’re now eligible for marriage and reproduction. In Gilead, biology is destiny. Power belongs to men; obedience is enforced through fear.
The show doesn’t flinch from its violence. Punishment is swift and public: bodies hang as warnings, tongues are cut out, hands severed. Surveillance is constant, often internalised — young girls encouraged to betray one another in a system that rewards compliance and punishes curiosity. It is a world that feels, uncomfortably, less like fiction than it should.
Many viewers have drawn parallels between Gilead’s authoritarianism and contemporary political shifts — particularly the rollback of women’s rights and the policing of personal freedoms under the guise of moral or religious authority. The Testaments leans into that discomfort, asking not just how such a world exists, but how it sustains itself.
The story was incredible from the first script, so I was ecstatic to read for it.
— Chase Infiniti
And yet, it’s not without tension, even tenderness. The series follows Agnes and her peers as they navigate forced womanhood — questioning, resisting, and, in some cases, quietly rebelling. There’s intrigue, betrayal, the flicker of young love, and the ever-present question: who can be trusted?
While Ann Dowd returns as the formidable Aunt Lydia, offering deeper insight into her origins, it’s Lucy Halliday who proves a standout as Holly/Daisy — a Pearl Girl dressed in white, signifying that she’s chosen to join Gilead rather than being born into it. Her presence disrupts the fragile equilibrium among the girls, raising suspicions: is she an ally, a spy, or something far more dangerous?
Halliday is acutely aware of the legacy she’s stepping into. “We were all very aware of how huge The Handmaid’s Tale was — how much it resonated politically and socially,” she says. “I was a huge Margaret Atwood fan growing up, so when The Testaments was being made, it was literally the greatest thing ever.”
The cast, she explains, approached the project with a sense of responsibility. “We really took it upon ourselves to be as well-informed as possible… We watched the show, spoke to everyone that would speak to us — Elisabeth Moss, Bruce Miller, Mike Barker. We soaked up everything we could and tried our best to step into this world seamlessly.”
Infiniti echoes that sense of reverence. “I felt blessed to even audition for The Testaments a couple of months after we wrapped One Battle,” she says. “The story was incredible from the first script, so I was ecstatic to read for it.”
Despite her rapid ascent, Infiniti carries herself with a grounded humility — perhaps shaped by working alongside industry heavyweights like Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro and Leonardo DiCaprio. There’s an awareness of the moment, but no sense of entitlement.
Mattea Conforti, who plays Becka — Agnes’s closest friend — brings a quiet intensity to the series. Becka’s dread at being married off to an older man becomes one of the show’s emotional anchors, her growing resistance amplifying the sense of impending danger. “Everybody really bought into wanting to deliver such an impactful and influential message,” Conforti says. “It’s something that will remain timeless.”
At the centre of it all is Dowd, whose Aunt Lydia remains one of television’s most complex antagonists — part zealot, part strategist, occasionally something resembling protector. Off-screen, Dowd is both warm and incisive, though not shy about drawing parallels between fiction and reality.
“The world we’re living in isn’t a particularly happy one,” she says. “It’s going to take strength, protest, awareness and alertness on everyone’s part if anything is going to change.” Her frustration with the current political climate is palpable, though carefully measured.
Before the conversation veers too far into dystopia mirroring reality, Infiniti offers a counterpoint — one rooted in cautious optimism.
“I feel hopeful,” she says. “The strength and resilience that the new generation carry is something I find inspiring. But I also feel a strong sense of responsibility for the generation above me — to support, nourish and protect them.”
It’s a perspective that feels tender in a narrative defined by control and division.
“I think we need to be there for them as much as they’re going to be there for us,” she adds. “Even though the world is a dark and scary place right now, this new generation has the ability to bring hope into it.”
The Testaments, which premiered on April 8, 2026, arrives with considerable expectation — and meets it. It’s gripping, unsettling, at times, uncomfortably familiar. But more than that, it expands a world that continues to resonate far beyond the screen.
If The Handmaid’s Tale asked how such a society could exist, The Testaments asks something more difficult: how it might endure — and who, ultimately, will challenge it.
The Testaments is streaming on Disney+
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