Few television worlds are as visually recognizable as the bone-chilling Gilead. But when cinematographer Greta Zozula joined Hulu’s “The Testaments,” one of her first major creative challenges was figuring out how to revisit the universe of the Emmy-winning “The Handmaid’s Tale” without copying it.
Speaking during IndieWire’s 2026 Craft Roundtable for cinematography, Zozula said that color ultimately became a key storytelling tool when it came to shaping the sequel series’ identity.
“The initial conversations were really about tone and color. Color was a big thing,” Zozula said. “When you think of handmaids, you think of red, and that was the color that we completely got rid of. And so those were the initial conversations. Then, we wanted to create a different perspective entirely — to create more openness and a softer environment because ultimately the perspective that we’re coming into is a lot more, hopefully, is Agnes McKenzie.”
That shift toward a vastly different protagonist (Chase Infiniti) is central to “The Testaments,” which follows a younger generation of women growing up inside its familiar repressive theocracy. Rather than viewing the patriarchal regime of Gilead through the eyes of an adult survivor trying to escape it, the spin-off puts us alongside a teenager who knows no other reality. The result is a visual approach that’s brighter than its predecessor, even as something equally dark lurks beneath the surface.
Zozula, whose previous credits include “The Half of It,” “Three Women,” and “American Sports Story,” shot six episodes of the season and helped establish the show’s visual language. Her work demonstrates how cinematography can honor an iconic series while still creating a distinct point of view all its own.
IndieWire’s TV Craft Roundtables is now streaming on @PBSSoCal and the PBS App as well as IndieWire.com and our social channels.
