As long as we acknowledge that Gilead, the fictional totalitarian nation at the center of The Handmaid’s Tale and the new series The Testaments, is oppressive and horrific we can comment on how some aspects of the aesthetic are beautiful… right? The latter especially has some lovely houses and gardens. Let’s break down some of the real world (and free, democratic world) filming locations on The Testaments.
The first season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale sequel/spin-off The Testaments filmed in Ontario, Canada. The studio they used, Cinespace Film Studios in the Etobicoke area, is also where the original series set up shop. The Handmaid’s Tale filmed all six seasons in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) as well. They stepped out only once to shoot on location in Washington, D.C. for season 3.
That means that Toronto played itself on The Testaments.
Since the deuteragonist Daisy’s story begins in Toronto where she grew up, the show got to use some real local haunts. Her family’s consignment store was actually filmed on Dundas Street, in an area where you might find shops just like that IRL. Daisy and June share a scene at a café in the city’s Little Italy, too. Production stepped outside of the city to Oshawa for the perfect skate park where we meet Daisy’s stoner boyfriend.
The Gilead scenes were filmed in Ontario as well.
While The Handmaid’s Tale transformed the GTA into Boston, Massachusetts, this series takes us to what Gilead has done to Colorado. There are wide open spaces in this corner of the dystopia! Agnes takes a ceremonial dip an indoor pool at a Toronto hotel in an early episode. Not sure why you’d want to visit this, but the bandshell where Shunammite (Rowan Blanchard) informs her class that the dead man hanging from nooses were rapists, not rapers, is located in Memorial Park in Oshawa.
In the fourth episode of the season, Agnes and her fellow plum girls visits a recently married classmate at her home. They filmed those scenes in a luxurious Toronto neighborhood (not saying neighbourhood, sorry) called St. Andrew-Windfields.
Some of the other Ontario areas The Testaments filmed in include Niagara, Cambridge, North Bay, Guelph, and Hamilton. One fan actually put together a locations map. So far on the series, two grandiose locations stand out.
You can actually visit the Agnes MacKenzie’s mansion home.
While the MacKenzie family moved to Colorado before the start of The Testaments, the show filmed at a mansion in Ontario. Escarpment House is a vacation rental just outside of Toronto with access to a private golf club.
Another Ontario estate serves as Aunt Lydia’s school for Gilead wives.
Most of the series so far takes place at the school where Agnes and Daisy are raised to serve God and their future husbands. The real world location is Chester Hall in Oakville, Ontario is one of Canada’s most expensive homes.
It’s not all pretty houses, however; even though these are some very pretty houses. According to The Hamilton Spectator, the show went to their publication’s former building to shoot some scenes in later episodes. Based on how The Handmaid’s Tale treated The Boston Globe offices in the second season of that show… I am scared!!
