#boycottthetestaments

Bruce Miller finally said the quiet part out loud — and it’s astonishing how unintentionally revealing this quote is.

“Margaret writes these absolutely deliciously specific characters. We had to go away from that in Handmaid’s, and we’re going to have to go away from that in Testaments.”

So now it’s admitted, openly, that they went away from Atwood’s characters — and will continue doing so in The Testaments.

The same team that spent YEARS insisting they were honoring the source material…

The same writers who dismissed fan criticism as “misunderstanding the story”…

The same showrunner who swore Season 6 was “aligned” with Atwood…

Now suddenly reframes it as “we had to go away from that.”

This is exactly what many of us have been saying:

The disconnection wasn’t accidental. It was deliberate.

And the moment they’re in promo mode for the next project, the narrative shifts again.

Not accountability.

Not honesty.

Just a new justification dressed up as creative necessity.

It’s remarkable how they claim Atwood writes “deliciously specific” characters — while proudly admitting they ignored those specifics when it actually mattered. Especially when those choices gutted entire arcs, flattened motivations, and rewrote characters (Nick, June, Luke, Serena) into versions unrecognizable from the text.

This is why The Testaments feels like a continuation of the same problem, not a fix for it.

If the starting point is “we’re going away from Margaret’s characters… again,” then how is this a sequel to her story and not a sequel to their retcon?

And this is exactly why our campaign exists.

Not out of pettiness.

Not out of fandom drama.

But because the creative team keeps shifting their story after the fact to avoid accountability for the narrative damage they caused.

They told us for years they were faithful to Atwood.

Now they admit they weren’t.

And in April, they plan to do it again.

We saw it.

We documented it.

And we called them out for it.

"Nick [is] a newly minted Commander, he has no star because he’s still a junior," Bronfman said about of Max Minghella's character. "Then you see Commanders that had one star. And then, in Washington, you saw some Commanders that had two stars. So there are different levels and clearly in Washington [with] it being the hub of the universe for Gilead, the real upper echelon would be in Washington."

Nick died without ever receiving a single star... But, yeah, he enjoyed an unlimited power! And he didn't take Hannah away from Mackenzie—who wears two stars— just becase Nick is not a good man... Surely.

But the truth is: none of this erases the inconsistencies, the contradictions, or the way the show erased and twisted key characters.

And that’s why we’re here, together, making it clear that we’re not just going to swallow whatever narrative they try to sell.

If they want to ignore years of character development, rewrite history, and pretend the audience forgot, then the answer is simple:

#boycottthetestaments

We’re watching. We’re speaking up. And they won’t silence us.

THE INDUSTRY S4 TRAILER IS HERE AND I’M LOSING IT 🔥🔥🔥

Premiering January 11, 2026 — AND MAX MINGHELLA IS IN THIS SEASON??

Let’s. Fucking. GOOOO. 😭🙌🏽🔥

This season already looks chaotic in the BEST way.

Power. Money. Mess. Drama.

I’m READY.

"Maybe I hadn't been playing this character correctly the whole time." Max Minghella.

There's something incredibly disheartening about hearing an actor question his own performance after six seasons, not because of a meaningful character evolution, but because the showrunners abruptly reframed the character from a different angle.

Max isn't admitting failure here. He's being honest, possibly too honest, about how disorienting it was to realize that the version of Nick he had committed to portraying was no longer the version the show wanted to present.

"I think l've just sort of been naive, I suppose, about who he was as a character..."

That's not an actor discovering a hidden layer. That's an actor grappling with a retcon. For years, Nick was framed, through writing, performance, and direction, as a man torn between survival and conscience, deeply loyal, and emotionally repressed in a way that reflected trauma, not malice.

Then, in the final stretch, the narrative shifts. Nick is recast as someone darker, colder, and possibly complicit — not because the groundwork was laid, but because the perspective suddenly changed. And Max is now left to do what the writing failed to: fill in the blanks.

“There was probably a darker side to him that I didn’t realize was there…”

What he’s really saying is: this darker version of Nick was never visible, not in the scripts, not in the direction, not in the emotional arc, until the very end. And now he’s expected to reframe everything in hindsight to justify that shift.

“That gave me a new thing to play.”

It didn’t give him clarity. It gave him contradiction.

This quote isn’t about discovery. It’s about a character being rewritten after the fact, and an actor being left to reinterpret everything he thought he knew to match a version of the story that no longer aligns with the one he helped build.

Max didn’t play Nick wrong.

📌 Fact Check Friday: Writer Commentary ≠ Canon

This week’s entry comes from Nina Fiore, one of the writers of The Handmaid’s Tale, who responded to a fan with the following:

“Nick had many opportunities to leave and didn’t… He loves June, not anti-Gilead… He became an Eye and a Commander so… he did a lot of bad things to maintain those positions. And be promoted.”

Let’s break down why this is not only misleading but also deeply insulting to viewers who actually paid attention to the show.

🔹 1. “Nick had many opportunities to leave and didn’t.”

False. Gilead is a theocratic dictatorship. Leaving is a death sentence unless you’re part of a covert escape — which Nick risked everything to orchestrate for June and Nichole in Season 2.

📌 As Max Minghella himself said post–Season 4:

“He can’t sacrifice his position because then he can no longer be useful. So it’s this kind of balance he’s always trying to figure out… but I believe his heart is in the right place.”

That’s not complacency. That’s strategic resistance from inside the regime.

🔹 2. “He loves June, not anti-Gilead.”

False binary. Why can’t he be both? The idea that resistance must be loud and performative erases the nuance of survival based rebellion. Nick infiltrated power, played the long game, and made choices that kept June alive, choices the writers once canonized. (See Seasons 2–5.)

🔹 3. “He did a lot of bad things to maintain those positions.”

Where? When? Show us. The show never depicted Nick committing atrocities or even enforcing Gilead’s cruelty. Writers claiming things happened off-screen does not make it canon.

🔹 4. “He chose to stay.”

This implies agency where the show repeatedly shows coercion. Gilead punishes disobedience. Staying alive isn’t the same as loyalty. Writers are retroactively assigning motive instead of owning the narrative corner they wrote themselves into.

🎯 The Real Issue?

Writers like Nina Fiore are doubling down instead of acknowledging they abandoned a six-season character arc, one rooted in resistance, sacrifice, and moral complexity. Instead, they’re gaslighting fans with post-finale commentary and retcon logic.

📣 Reminder: Fictional characters don’t have agency. Writers do.

Nick Blaine didn’t choose to “do bad things.” The writers chose to erase his arc and pin that decision on him, ike he wrote his own scenes.

We’re not confused. We’re just not buying it.

Nichole Without Nick and June Isn’t The Testaments

In Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, Nichole (raised as Daisy) matters because of who she is. She’s not just another young woman swept into Gilead’s resistance — she’s the daughter of two rebels, June Osborne and Nick Blaine. Her existence is resistance. Her bloodline is rebellion. That’s why her journey to liberate her sister Agnes carries such weight: it’s not random chance, it’s the culmination of everything her parents risked and fought for.

But in the show? They’ve already stripped her of that connection. Nichole isn’t Nick and June’s child anymore — she’s just a plot device floating in the story, severed from the legacy that gave her meaning.

And that matters. Without Nick and June, Nichole isn’t the child of rebellion. She isn’t the symbol of survival against impossible odds. She’s just another character — interchangeable, forgettable, hollow.

This is how trust is lost. The show already alienated loyalists of The Handmaid’s Tale novel by flattening characters, reframing themes, and distorting Atwood’s vision. Now they’re doing the same with The Testaments before it even begins.

It’s not just disrespectful to fans. It’s disrespectful to Margaret Atwood.

And I probably would wish — I really would! — express some support to Miller, because in any case, he was the one who gave me these magnificent first seasons of the show! But what about some nihilistic view of the current situation, eh?

Miller wasn't as eloquent as Tuchman and Chang, but he was still involved in Gaslighting of loyal viewers. Right? That viewers who have remained loyal to the show all these years. Reviewed it. Commented on it. And, in the end, to simplify things, these viewers paid Miller a salary.

Anyway, Miller was standing shoulder to shoulder with ET & YC, when all these bloodthirsty interviews and other rubbish flew into the confused audience. Was he trapped? Did he have the autonomy to change the situation? Could his certain gentleness have been caused by the fact that in his soul he still loved at least some of the loyal audience?

And then my next question is simple — can love atone for complicity in bulling and premeditated murder? A murder committed with deliberate cruelty towards the audience. Meaningless to the character. Moreover, destroying the canon. A murder that sacrificed not only Nick, but also June, and all for the sake of shock value.

Or maybe it's simpler? Maybe I'm blinded by Miller's previous achievements and looking for excuses for him? Maybe I'm still looking at him through rose-colored glasses?

Despite the love that probably still lived in his heart, did Miller instead give preference to the power that the sequel promised him?? We didn't see what he was doing 95% of the time that passed between the s5 and s6, right? Did Miller probably benefit from how high he was in the hierarchy? Did he like it? He did not want to risk his position, and therefore, when the execution of the spectators began, and when the ropes tightened around their necks, he did not stand up for them? FOR US.

And yes, Miller did not shoot at the heads of those spectators who miraculously survived the hanging.

But he was handing out the cartridges.

His presence was supposed to give legitimacy to the madness that was going on. And his speeches were meant to silence those who would dare to object.

Surely Miller wanted to do the right thing, right? He wasn't a ”bad" guy, was he? And perhaps he hoped that if he “wouldn't kept his head up", it would save him, and he would not get hurt because he chose the side of the “winners"?

But the truth is that the world in which the plane broke out — and broke out, I must say, cinematically; colorful flashes against the background of the night sky and runway lights it was oh highly art.… — So, that world stopped being something that happened “only on screen” — because June, who chose to kill Nick, destroyed the “fourth” wall.

The point of no return for the audience was close before that. It was like walking on the edge of a precipice. 1) The deterioration of drama from season to season; 2) In imposing actions and thoughts on the characters that are not typical for them; 3) Instead of devoting time to the development of the plot forward, the script was stuck in a triangle for three whole years. In a triangle that hardly made sense. 4) With each passing season, Gilead became less and less like itself, turning into a theme park where you can go after lunch.… And although the stakes and risks should have increased over time, instead the characters only acquired the story armor of invulnerability.… 5) Season 6 became a candle that was lit on the top tier of a previously poisoned cake: it was such a weak and lazily executed job that loyal viewers refused to admit until the last moment that the writers had screwed up. Hope was beating desperately in their hearts — surely such a grandiosely launched series could be sent to ruins, repeating the experience of GOT? Well, as they say, hold my beer.…

Well, if the plan was to bury a sequel that hasn't even been released yet, then in my humble opinion they did a great job. Audaciously. Boldly.

But I'm still doing what many people call mental gymnastics, trying to figure out who Miller thinks is The Testaments' target audience?

Maybe these are the extremely aggressive radical feminists for whom the legacy of THT was trampled into the mud? I don't think so, because I don't understand what could interest these women in a sequel.

Maybe TT's target audience is random viewers who switch streaming services and watch episodes with the back of their head while they cook in the kitchen? Or who scrolling through the IG tape, glancing at the screen with one eye?

No matter how hard I try, the task doesn't seem to be solved. Because it is absolutely certain that TT's target audience cannot be viewers who loved June and Nick with all their hearts and, according to the canon, naively waited for a sequel that would tell them about their daughter and Hannah. About two sisters. And about the LOVE AS STRONG AS DEATH.

Until the last minute, until the very end of episode 10, I was naive, believing that the writers after all will show respect to those viewers who remembered all the plot lines, knew the characters, devoted dozens of hours of their lives, discussing their motives and wondering about the possible development of events. Oh, that was really naive.

Whoever came up with the idea of comparing season 6 to a “love letter to fans” deserves to have his name spoken out loud. Is it fair that the real “heroes" remain unnamed? I'm sure fans would love to send copies of this letter back. Shove in throat.

There were about a hell of a lot of ways to finish Nick's arc satisfactorily. And in most of these ways, he even didn't stay with June; if the writers were desperate to drag a dead horse named Luke to the finish line, then to hell with them. We wouldn't like it, but we would respect it anyway.…

However, instead, the show chose the way to burned the entire story to the ground. THE WHOLE STORY. From s01ep01 to the last frame: — My name is Offred…

Miller, putting THT in the hands of the new showrunners, seems to have given them weapons, but didn't teach them how to use it? What a misunderstanding to kill two shows at once with one shot.

On the screen, the revolution was pathetic. Could it have been different if everything AGAIN happened behind the scenes?

The real revolution began after the final episode — in the comments. It's impossible to ignore the fact that almost no one has written about June (seriously, writers, how did you manage to “kill” the character so much?). Instead, thousands of comments revolved around two huge — HUGE ones! — questions.

What the fuck did you do to Nick?? And where the hell is Hannah?? Bittersweetly, neither question adds new viewers to the sequel.…

Obviously, those who had no idea that Hannah couldn't be saved in THT didn't know anything about TT's existence. Will it be possible to lure them to watch the sequel now, after they waited six seasons and were ruined? Well, you can try.

The second category of viewers is much more ruthless. Those who knew about Hannah's fate and were really WAITING for The Testaments are now sending the sequel to hell. And Miller and his team should really hope and be happy if everything ends up just being ignored by this part of the audience. Which, to be honest, I soooo doubt — the wicked irony is that it was this show that told us that WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO FEEL RAGE. Oh, and we have the rage, you can be sure.

At first it was mute disbelief. It was replaced by passionate denial. Then, in an instant, we were engulfed by an ocean of pain, anger, and resentment.

After that, many needed real medicines to cope with it. No kidding. I was one of those people who took pills to deal with the grief of losing a character. And I'm still not okay if I spend my time typing all this text on the keyboard. So what will be my next stage?

Obviously, I'll move on to accepting the situation next. Yes, the show killed Nick. It turned 180 degrees, suddenly announcing to me that this man was a villain, ate kittens for breakfast and washed his hands with the blood of virgins. OK. I heard you. This is complete bullshit, of course. But I really heard you.

The most important thing begins after the Acceptance stage arrives. This is the stage of experiencing grief when a person finds the strength to move on and helps others to do so. As for what's going on in THT's fandom, that's exactly what I'm seeing RIGHT NOW. The audience gets to this stage one by one. And they are no longer alone! I can see from the posts here and the comments on IG, TikTok and other apps that hundreds of us have not shown ourselves in all previous years. We had a favorite pair of characters who got a great love story on screen.; And even though their love continued to be tested, we knew exactly where everything was heading. We had a CANON of books, damn it! Which, as we were assured, the show really follows. I already have a sore spot on my tongue from repeating this endlessly, but in the books, Nick is alive. Nick is Mayday. Nick reunites with his daughter and can hug his grandchildren.…

But if the show used me cheaply to grossly and filthily violate the canon in order to make a political statement, well, then I think my hands are free. I HAVE THE AUDACITY TO SAY THAT MOST OF NICK AND JUNE'S FANS WON'T BE WATCHING THE TESTAMENTS. Moreover, very, very many of us will spare no time and effort to contribute to sinking this ship. TT without Nick and June's fans, this is just ANOTHER of the hundreds of shows that are released weekly.… TT could have received our support, but I remember perfectly well how they showed me where my place was. SEVERAL MONTHS OF GASLIGHTING, INSULTS, AND DELIBERATE BULLYING. Would you like to receive a video of my reaction to ep 09?? Well, I shouldn't have trusted sadists. But how was I supposed to know? Rose-colored glasses and all that, right?

The rating of season 6 of THT on IMDB is only 7.6 versus 8.4 for season 2. The final episode of the series was rated at 5.6. And the figures steadily continue to fall … On Tomatoes, season 5 was rated by viewers by only 23%. Season 6 is still holding a 42% level, but it's absurd to hope that these numbers won't equalize sooner or later. Metacritics: Season 5 is 4.5, season 6 has already dropped to 5.4. Viewers are not idiots. Have the writers probably forgotten about this?

I'm not saying that my feelings are objective. Maybe Miller couldn't have done anything. I don't know. But if the show is telling me that Nick deserved to die for being an “accomplice," then why shouldn't I use the same rule against Miller? In the end, after all these years, HE CHOSE POWER instead of telling a good consistent story and being respectful to his audience.

Bruce Miller made the mistake of letting Nick get on the damn plane and letting June watch it. Oh, it's definitely a betrayal. Which is impossible to forgive.

Surely Miller was asked to give up? Most likely many times?