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Fans of The Handmaid’s Tale will have to say goodbye to more than just Gilead in its sixth and final season. Samira Wiley shared why she won’t return to the series. Read more inside.
Wiley, who plays June’s best friend Moira, confirmed she will not return for the upcoming spin-off series The Testaments. According to xoNecole, the actress attended the premiere event for Season 6 and made her stance crystal clear.
“I am done with it. I am done with the trauma,” she shared. “I feel like I have played my part and my story is done.”
Wiley’s decision is understandable. Hulu’s award-winning dystopian drama, based on Margaret Atwood’s novel, isn’t exactly light viewing. Set in a totalitarian future where fertile women are forced into sexual slavery to repopulate the earth, the show dives deep into oppression, resistance, and psychological torment. As powerful as the performances are, Wiley admits the heaviness of the story took a toll on her off-screen.
To maintain her mental health while filming such intense material, Wiley leaned into wellness practices.
“I had to learn some techniques—meditation and mindfulness and all of those things—to consciously take myself out of the world of Gilead,” she said. She even issued a gentle warning to binge-watchers saying, “Please take care of your mental health.”
Though Wiley won’t be a part of the spin-off, her character Moira finally got some peace by the end of Season 5. Her exit feels like a full-circle moment. Not only for Moira, who endured unspeakable trauma, but also for Wiley herself, who’s been with the series since its 2017 debut.
And while her chapter in Gilead is closing, Wiley’s impact remains. From her role in Orange Is the New Black to the resilience she brought to Moira, she’s carved out a space for complex, unapologetically real Black women on screen.
The final season of The Handmaid’s Tale premiered April 8 on Hulu. As for The Testaments, which is set 15 years after the original events, a new story will unfold, but without one of its most beloved voices.
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