‘The Handmaid’s Tale’s Creator “Wanted To Kill” This Character Off — and We’re Glad He Didn’t

In a recent interview with TV Line, The Handmaid’s Talecreator Bruce Miller revealed that he once considered killing off Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski). It’s a reveal that might not surprise long-time viewers of the Hulu series. After all, Serena has been one of the most polarizing characters across the show’s six seasons. Yet it also serves as a reminder of how vital Serena became to the emotional core of the series.

At her worst, she was a ruthless architect of Gilead, shaping its brutal ideology and benefiting from its cruelty. At her best, she was a woman grappling with loss and guilt, seeking redemption from those she wronged. In the hands of lesser writers, Serena might have been reduced to a one‑note villain. But thanks to sharp scripts and Yvonne Strahovski’s captivating performance, she emerged as one of the show’s most compelling antiheroes — making the decision to spare her all the more rewarding, and a testament to the writers for realizing it before it was too late.

Serena Joy Had One of the Most Compelling Arcs in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

Serena Joy entered the world of The Handmaid’s Tale as a character built to be a main antagonist to June (Elisabeth Moss). From the very first episode, she embodied the cruelty and hypocrisy of Gilead. She was a brilliant, calculating woman who used her intellect and conviction to justify an authoritarian regime that stripped women of their autonomy. Yvonne Strahovski played her with a piercing glare and a sharp tongue, easily making her hateable. Yet even in those early moments, there was a sense that she was more complicated than the monstrous figure she appeared to be. Beneath the cold glares and brutal policies she enforced, a vulnerability simmered just under the surface, hinting at a deeper, more conflicted character waiting to be revealed.

Over the course of six seasons, that vulnerability rose to the surface, reshaping how audiences viewed Serena. We watched as she lost her privileges — and even a finger — as well as the illusions she once held about the world she had helped create. In many ways, she became both a perpetrator and a victim, making her character remarkably complex. By the final season, she was grappling with guilt and searching for belonging, desperate to redefine herself in a world that refused to forget the role she played. Now a mother herself, trying to keep her son safe, she was forced to reckon with the enormity of her choices, making her evolution one of the series’ most compelling threads.

What kept this shift from feeling like a betrayal of her character was how meticulously it was built over time. The writers refused to justify Serena’s crimes or erase the trauma she caused. Instead, they allowed her to stumble, struggle, and evolve slowly, making every step toward redemption feel deserved. In a show defined by cruelty and resilience, that careful approach turned her journey into one of its best — and gave her an ending far more satisfying than a simple demise ever could.

Yvonne Strahovski’s Performance Helped Make Serena a Redeemable Character in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

Serena’s complexity would have fallen flat if it weren’t for Yvonne Strahovski, whose performance captured every shade of the character, from icy control to desperate vulnerability. In moments when the script gave her little to say, Strahovski spoke volumes with a glance or a shift in posture. Even when the story pushed Serena to her lowest moments, she refused to reduce her to a purely evil, one‑dimensional villain. Instead, she found ways to ground the character in reality, making every beat feel morally gray and deeply human.

By the final season, Serena had traveled further from her beginnings than anyone could have imagined, fully embodying the tensions that shaped her character throughout the series. The scene in the finale where June chooses to forgive Serena became one of the show’s quietest and most powerful moments. It was hard to imagine such a moment could ever come, given the Waterfords’ brutal betrayal and the trauma they inflicted on June. Yet, in that scene, a survivor and a perpetrator, both mothers shaped by loss, pain, and longing, found themselves connected, sharing a moment of grace that spoke to the heart of the series.

Serena didn’t end her journey as a hero or a villain. Instead, she emerged as something far more challenging and rare. She became a deeply human character, grappling with the scars of her choices and searching for a way forward despite the ruins she left behind. It was a testament to Strahovski’s range that, at times, she made it hard not to sympathize with a character so often defined by her cruelty.

By choosing to spare Serena in the end, the creators gave audiences an ending that felt earned, not gratuitous. It could have been tempting to kill her off – to have her sacrifice herself for her son, or be discovered at a checkpoint by Mayday — but allowing her to live felt far more powerful. Left to live with all she had done, and to perhaps find a way to leave the world better than she found it, Serena’s fate became a quiet, hopeful statement – and we’re glad Miller and the writers went that way.

All seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale are available to stream on Hulu.

The Handmaid’s Tale

Release Date

2017 – 2025-00-00

Network

Hulu

Showrunner

Bruce Miller

Directors

Mike Barker, Kari Skogland, Daina Reid, Reed Morano, Floria Sigismondi, Jeremy Podeswa, Kate Dennis, Richard Shepard, Amma Asante, Christina Choe, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Bradley Whitford, Dearbhla Walsh, Liz Garbus

Writers

Kira Snyder, Eric Tuchman, Yahlin Chang, John Herrera, Jacey Heldrich, Dorothy Fortenberry, Marissa Jo Cerar, Lynn Renee Maxcy