We’ve been called back to Gilead, just a year after season six of The Handmaid’s Tale wrapped up — this time through the spin-off The Testaments. The story is driven by three narrators, though one will be a familiar, and possibly unwelcome, face for fans of the original series.
Margaret Atwood released The Testaments in 2019, two years after the TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale began, and more than thirty years after the original novel debuted in 1985. Atwood shared her plans for the characters with the showrunners, allowing them to map out the series’ trajectory. Even so, the TV adaptation makes several changes — some logical given the evolution of the show, others more surprising and controversial for devoted fans.
From timeline adjustments to character reimaginings, here’s a roundup of the biggest differences between The Testaments book and the TV series, and the reasoning behind them.
The Testaments book to show differences, explained
A major difference between The Testaments TV show and book is the timeline. In Margaret Atwood’s novel, the story begins 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale. The series, however, jumps forward only four years.
There are two key reasons for this change. First, the timeline accounts for the difference in pacing between book and show. The novel ends with June fleeing Gilead with Baby Nichole, whereas the TV adaptation spans six seasons and extends far beyond that moment.
Second, showrunner Bruce Miller told The Hollywood Reporter, “There are parts of the [Testaments] book that take place very far in the future, and we want to save those things for far in the future. They’re goals we’re working towards. But there’s a compact bit of the story that takes place with the girls when they’re going through this process of finding husbands. That, as a core, is what we’re shooting for.”
This adjustment allows the series to stay closer to the timeline of the original show while gradually building toward the book’s later events.
Aunt Lydia appears in both The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, and it was Ann Dowd’s iconic performance in the original series that inspired Margaret Atwood to make her a narrator in the sequel.
In the novel, Aunt Lydia’s backstory reveals that she worked as a judge before Gilead’s rise to power. However, in season three of The Handmaid’s Tale, she is depicted as a former teacher. To maintain continuity with the show, The Testaments TV series retains the teacher backstory in flashback sequences, ensuring a consistent narrative across both series.
In the novel, Agnes is raised by Commander Kyle and his wife Tabitha, who later dies from illness. After Tabitha’s death, Kyle marries Paula, a woman who has also lost her partner.
The TV adaptation adjusts this timeline. When we first meet Agnes, Tabitha has already passed, and we see her largely through Agnes’s memories. Paula is introduced immediately, stepping into the role of stepmother.
In both book and show, Paula’s disdain for Agnes is unmistakable — she openly expresses her hostility, making life difficult for her stepdaughter.
There are some new (and familiar) faces in Gilead.
Aunt Vidala appears in both The Testaments book and TV series as a stern disciplinarian and heir-apparent within Gilead’s women’s hierarchy. A devoted enforcer of the regime’s rules and traditions, she carries out her duties with unwavering authority.
In the novel, Vidala was an early supporter of Gilead, even before its official takeover. She personally selected Lydia and other women to become Aunts under Commander Judd’s supervision.
In the TV adaptation, however, Mabel Li’s version of Vidala did not support Gilead in its early days. Her arrival appears closely intertwined with Aunt Lydia’s story, and we’ll learn more about her backstory as the season unfolds.
We go into more detail about Daisy's identity elsewhere, but here’s a quick recap on the character, played by Lucy Halliday.
In both the book and TV show, Daisy is one of The Testaments’ three narrators, alongside Agnes and Aunt Lydia. Her backstory is largely consistent: she grew up in Toronto until her parents were killed for secretly working with Mayday against Gilead. Her mission remains the same, too — infiltrating Gilead as a spy to help Mayday take down the regime and seek justice for her parents.
However, there are two major differences between the book and the series. First, Daisy appears much earlier on-screen, present from the start, whereas the book follows her journey into Gilead.
The second, and biggest, change involves her age relative to Agnes. In the show, they are presented as the same age, with Agnes even helping Daisy settle in. In the book, Agnes is roughly ten years older and now works as an Aunt named Victoria. This adjustment has a major impact on the story’s big reveal: Daisy can no longer be Baby Nichole, June’s daughter, who would be at least seven years younger than Agnes. It also shifts the power dynamics between the two characters.
It’s a shame to see this change, as Daisy’s original arc was a captivating part of the novel. In the book, she grows up unaware of her real identity but is fascinated by Baby Nichole’s story. At school, she even wrote an essay about Nichole, unknowingly reflecting on herself, arguing that the utilitarian choice would be to return Nichole to Gilead — a chilling insight into her internalisation of the regime’s ideology.
Let’s get straight to it: June Osborne does not appear in The Testaments book, except for a brief epilogue moment where she is reunited with her daughters, Hannah and Nicole, in Canada.
Many fans didn’t expect to see Elisabeth Moss in the TV adaptation, despite her role as executive producer — at most, viewers hoped she might appear a few seasons in.
Instead, June makes her presence known in episode three, albeit in a different way. She steps in to support Daisy, first after the loss of her parents and then as she prepares to work with Mayday. June acts as Daisy’s contact within Gilead, though whether she is actually her mother remains unclear — for now, it seems unlikely. We're excited to see more of Elisabeth Moss in the show.
In the novel, Garth helps Daisy trick the Pearls into recruiting her while she’s still in Canada. He had even moved from Texas to Canada specifically to work as a Mayday agent and fight Gilead from the outside.
In the TV adaptation of The Testaments, Garth remains a Mayday agent, but his role is shifted: he’s now deep undercover as one of the Eyes tasked with protecting Agnes and her household, working to undermine the regime from within.
This adjustment was made largely to accommodate June Osborne’s presence. Since June is already assisting Daisy in Canada, there’s less need for Garth in that storyline, so the show repurposes him for a high-stakes role inside Gilead.
We'll keep you posted on more differences between The Testaments book and TV adaptation.
The Testaments is streaming weekly on Disney+.
