How Old Are Agnes & Daisy in 'The Testaments'? The TV Series & Book Timelines Are Different

Hulu’s new series The Testaments just premiered and it brings fans back into Gilead, years after the events in The Handmaid’s Tale.

The show follows Agnes, the daughter of Elisabeth Moss‘ character June, as she comes of age in Gilead as the daughter of a Commander.

The six seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale followed June trying to get her daughter back after she was taken away from her, but she unfortunately never succeeded in the series. The Testaments takes place four years after the events in the original series.

While both series are based on the books by Margaret Atwood, there are some major changes to the timelines, including ages of some characters.

Keep reading to find out more…

The series follows young teens Agnes (Chase Infiniti), dutiful and pious, and Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a new arrival and convert from beyond Gilead’s borders. As they navigate the gilded halls of Aunt Lydia’s elite preparatory school for future wives, a place where obedience is instilled brutally and always with divine justification, their bond becomes the catalyst that will upend their past, their present and their future.

So, how old are Agnes and Daisy?

Chase says that Agnes is 14 when the show starts.

“I really tried to tap into what it was like being 14, 15, and to bring that mindset and that excitement to life itself to her. [I tried] making sure that she’s staying grounded, but also staying very hopeful and youthful and bright in the world, because it’s hard not to be,” Chase told THR. In the first season, “you will see Agnes be a 14-year-old and experience all the 14-year-old things and feelings and thoughts,” but “she is really learning that [her life] is not all that she was prepped for and expecting.”

In real life, Chase was 24-years-old when the season began filming and she turned 25 during production.

In the book, Daisy is about 15-16 years during the events of the story and she appears to be about that age in the series.

Daisy has some differences from the book to the series though. In the book, we discover that she is actually June’s daughter Nichole (aka Holly), who was adopted by another family in Canada after she was smuggled out of Gilead. In the series, she is not June’s daughter, though she has the same backstory of being smuggled out of Gilead and being adopted by new parents.

In the book, Agnes is actually about 10 years older than Daisy, but the TV show changed these details and it appears that Daisy is slightly older now.

Lucy was about 21-years-old at the time of filming.

Series creator Bruce Miller told THR, “We’re definitely trying to follow the overall story of the book, but the ins and outs of the actual storyline are difficult because characters are different ages, and we had to redefine the Daisy character to keep things practical in our world.”

“Holly would only be four or five,” he added. “So in our story, because of the timeline, baby Holly, as far as we know, is safe growing up in Toronto… for now!”

Learn all about the surprise cameo of a major star!