Yvonne Strahovski on Serena’s journey in The Handmaid’s Tale S6

The first nine episodes of the sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale are now streaming first on Showmax, with the finale dropping on Wednesday, 28 May 2025, express from the US.  

Since the first five seasons won 15 Emmys, Season 6 was one of the most anticipated TV shows of 2025. The season has not disappointed, with a 90% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Collider praises the “strong plotting, incisive commentary, and never-better performances”, hailing the season as “a powerful finale of one of TV’s best shows” and “a masterclass in how to end a sharp, politically imperative show in times of moral crisis.” 

Yvonne Strahovski returns in her Emmy-nominated role as Serena Joy, who is now trying to reform Gilead, working with Commander Lawrence and Aunt Lydia (Bradley Whitford and Ann Dowd in Emmy-winning roles).  

“Serena is my favourite character besides June and that’s largely due to Yvonne’s performance and how much nuance she brings to her character,” says Emmy-winning co-star Elisabeth Moss, who also directed the first two and last two episodes this season. “She brings a humanity and a vulnerability and a cruelty as well. June and Serena’s relationship is the love story of the show; it’s the centre of the show.” 

To find out more, we caught up with Yvonne, who also stars in the horror series Teacup on Showmax.  

You’ve had quite a journey with Serena.

I feel so grateful to have played this character. She is so many things in one. We definitely enjoyed hating her to begin with. But what kind of a villain has she been? She’s made a lot of bad choices but she’s also tried to make better choices. She must survive, and for better or worse, she makes choices based on that need to survive. That’s been her ebb and flow. It’s such an amazing reflection of humanity itself, on how complex life can be and all the grey areas in our own psyche and all of our complex feelings as humans and how we navigate all of that. 

What was your favourite moment in The Handmaid’s Tale?  

My onscreen favourite moment is Noah’s birth in the barn. I was fresh out of my own birth experiences with my second child. I just really wanted to bring everything I learned from the births of my first two children to that scene. It felt very personal to me, just purely in the physicalising and vocalising all of it. The things Lizzie and I exchange verbally in the scene will always feel very close to home and very personal. 

How do you see Serena’s relationship with June, who is pulled back into the fight to take down Gilead this season? 

The relationship between June and Serena is central to the show. They’re the two key faces of Gilead. Every season, I try and look with fresh eyes at Serena and her relationship with the other characters – primarily with June. This season is probably the most raw, most real, most honest version of their relationship we’ve seen. There will be times where we almost feel like they have arrived at a friendship. Whether they’re both seeing it that way is another story. 

Serena believes in redemption. June’s forgiveness is the one thing Serena desperately wants.  

June has always had a place in her heart for Serena. But June says to her, ‘I want to forgive you, but I can’t.’  

The disaster factor is inevitable. There’s always going to be the hurdle of what Serena represents, what she turned a blind eye to in Gilead. It’s a foundational difference between the two of them.  

They’re both women who can get things done and they’re both smart. If only they were on the same page, which they’re not. 

Lizzie and I have a joke that we’re like Juliet and Juliet – lovers in a very dysfunctional 

relationship. We have these amazing intense moments and then it crashes and burns and then we come back to each other. There is a constant dance between these two. I love the push and pull between the characters and what they represent, what they’ve become, what the colours represent, the red and the blue. I mean, it’s amazing.  

Do you think Serena feels indebted to June?  

As an actor, I’ve had to decide how much of a debt Serena feels she owes June because it’s such a fine line. I play a character that is somewhat narcissistic and somewhat manipulative, and quite narrow-minded. Serena gets overwhelmed with the amount of debt and gratitude that she owes June – but there are moments where she’s not going to acknowledge it. She’s going to be in denial, usually for some self-serving reason. Is Serena going to do the right thing, or isn’t she? Is the audience going to be on her side? Are they going to be rooting for her? We’ll see.  
 
Binge all six seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale on Showmax.  

Watch the S6 trailer, which has over 12m views

Watch the trailer for Teacup, which has nearly 3m views