Modern Family Sneakily Changed A Character's Age (2024)

The show surreptitiously made one of its characters older for season 3, which greatly improved the sitcom, but how old is Lily from Modern Family? ABC's hit series featured an ensemble main cast that totaled 13 by the time of the Modern Family finale. The cast included a number of young actors given that the show followed several generations of the Dunphy and Tucker-Pritchett families, with all of them going through major growth spurts and their appearances drastically changing over the course of 11 years in front of audiences. However, one character in particular aged much faster than she logically should have.

Modern Family ended after season 11, but over the course of 11 years, viewers became immersed in the Dunphys and Tucker-Pritchett's day-to-day lives, whether it was awkward family events or vacations. Resultantly, audiences watched the younger cast mature from young children through to adulthood and saw how the diverse and strange family affected the kids' own personalities. However, while the growth of the Modern Family cast was a key element of the series, one of these characters was sneakily recast for season 3 with an older actor, but how old is Lily from Modern Family?

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Modern Family Obviously Recast Lily But Also Sneakily Made Her Older

It is casually mentioned during Modern Family season 4 that Lily was six years old. But logically, if Lily was born just before the very first episode, she should have only been four or five by this point. This minor plot hole was created after the character was recast in the previous season, and the producers seized the opportunity to age up the character in the process. This made it necessary to subtly mention Lily's age in order to establish it as canon from season 3 onwards. While it was obvious that Lily was recast in Modern Family, the reading of the character was clever and pretty sneaky.

Lily Tucker-Pritchett, the daughter of Modern Family's Mitch and Cam, was originally played by infant twins, Ella and Jaden Hiller. Twin children are often cast in the same movie and TV roles because children are only allowed to work certain hours, so casting twins means that productions can continue for longer. The Hiller twins portrayed Lily through Modern Family seasons 1 and 2, but their parents decided that they had stopped enjoying the process, so opted to not return for season 3 (via NowToLove). The producers, therefore, recast Lily with the four-year-old, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, who remained in the role through to Modern Family's conclusion.

Making Lily Older Improved Modern Family

Making Lily older meant that Modern Family could develop her character and disposition much sooner. Many of Lily's personality traits were almost fully formed by the end of Anderson-Emmons's first season, season 3, which proved highly advantageous for future episodes. Lily became an integral member of Modern Family's main characters, particularly in storylines featuring her fathers, Mitch and Cam. Lily was the perfect way to balance the two men and was often the driving narrative motivation for them. As Cam and Mitch slowly became more outlandish over Modern Family's run, Lily grounded both her parents and soon became the voice of wisdom within the Tucker-Pritchet household.

If Lily had remained the same age, this essential function would not have been filled until season 6. Recasting Anderson-Emmons also allowed writers to create storylines for Lily much sooner, rather than merely being a glorified prop for Cam to dress up and parade around. It also aligned her with the other younger characters in Modern Family. This meant that Lily (like Manny, Luke, Alex, and Hayley) could grow into young adulthood by the time Modern Family was canceled after season 11, completing her story arc from adoption to maturity.

Lily's Age In Modern Family Season 11

Lily might have been treated when the character was recast, but how old is Lily in season 11 of Modern Family? As the show made a point of noting Lily's age in season 4, making sure audiences knew she was six years old, that would make Lily 13 years old by the end of Modern Family season 11. Seasons of the show were released every year without a single gap, so after seven more seasons, Lily would have aged seven years since the fourth season. The age switch-up isn't a major pothole in the grand scheme of an 11-season show, and if anything, it helped Lily transform in Modern Family.