The Testaments serves as a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, picking things up long after that show’s ending. The hit Hulu series wrapped up in 2025, but a follow-up was already in the works. That’s thanks to Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel, which was itself a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale book, coming 34 years later. The TV adaptation had long overtaken where the original story had ended, which also means some changes to The Testaments. Warning: SPOILERS ahead for The Testaments book and Episodes 1-3.
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One of the biggest changes to the TV show is with its timeline; which, in the book, is timelines. The story is split into three viewpoint characters – Aunt Lydia, Agnes, and Daisy – and by the time the last of those comes into it, Agnes is already an adult. The Hulu series is streamlining this by having the characters around the same age, and their storylines playing out together rather than any degree of separation. But that’s not the only way it changes the timeline.
The Testaments Is Set 4 Years After The Handmaid’s Tale
The early episodes of The Testaments confirm that it has been around four years since the fall of Boston, which was where the city was liberated from Gilead’s control by the Handmaid’s at the very end of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6. This gives it enough distance from the original show, but without things having changed too much: Gilead still controls large parts of the United States, it continues to make its influence felt in Canada, and there remains a lot of fighting (and it also allows for a cameo from Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne).
This is a marked departure from the book, albeit a rather necessary one. The Testaments book picks up 15 years after The Handmaid’s Tale novel ends, which means you feel those changes and the passage of time more. However, since The Handmaid’s Tale show had continued on so far beyond the end of Atwood’s book (Season 1’s finale is where the adaptation finishes), and several more years passed, it had to account for that. From The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1 to The Testaments, it’s around six or seven years, but that largely comes from Agnes’ age.
Agnes Is Around 14 Years Old In The Testaments (& Is She Hannah?)
Although the Hulu series is trying to hide it, anyone who has watched The Handmaid’s Tale (or read the books) will immediately know that Agnes MacKenzie is actually Hannah Bankole, June’s daughter with Luke Bankole who was take by Gilead. We know from the original show that Hannah was about five years old when she was taken, and around eight in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1. Chase Infiniti told THR that Agnes is 14 in The Testaments Season 1, saying: “You will see Agnes be a 14-year-old and experience all the 14-year-old things and feelings and thoughts.”
This makes sense for The Testaments‘ story, if not the timeline. In The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5, June mentions that Hannah would be 12 years old; given The Testaments is four years after Season 6, then the ages don’t quite add up. However, that’s nothing new, really, because the show always had a pretty wonky, inconsistent timeline. Baby Holly/Nichole is the best example of this, since she hardly ages throughout the show, when at least a few years should’ve passed.
Still, it’s possible that Infiniti wasn’t entirely accurate with the age, and there’s some built-in leeway: Agnes does note in The Testaments Episode 1 that they weren’t allowed calendars, and she’s not even sure what year it was, so that allows them to fudge things to a degree.
It does, however, have a much greater impact on Daisy’s story, with the character roughly the same age as Agnes in the TV show, rather than being much younger. Daisy’s parents in The Testaments book are June Osborne and Nick Blaine, but it’s been confirmed that isn’t the case in the adaptation, because the timeline wouldn’t allow for it. The rest of her story should still broadly follow the source material, but that is the biggest change brought about because of the passage of time.
New episodes of The Testaments release on Wednesdays on Hulu.
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