diff --git a/testing/test_assertrewrite.py b/testing/test_assertrewrite.py
index d19879527..21e22c15f 100644
--- a/testing/test_assertrewrite.py
+++ b/testing/test_assertrewrite.py
@@ -458,29 +458,29 @@ class TestAssertionRewriteHookDetails(object):
 
     @pytest.mark.skipif("sys.version_info[0] >= 3")
     def test_detect_coding_cookie(self, testdir):
-        testdir.makepyfile(test_cookie=u"""
+        testdir.makepyfile(test_cookie="""
             # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
             u"St\xc3\xa4d"
             def test_rewritten():
-                assert "@py_builtins" in globals()""".encode('utf-8'))
+                assert "@py_builtins" in globals()""")
         assert testdir.runpytest().ret == 0
 
     @pytest.mark.skipif("sys.version_info[0] >= 3")
     def test_detect_coding_cookie_second_line(self, testdir):
-        testdir.makepyfile(test_cookie=u"""
+        testdir.makepyfile(test_cookie="""
             # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
             u"St\xc3\xa4d"
             def test_rewritten():
-                assert "@py_builtins" in globals()""".encode('utf-8'))
+                assert "@py_builtins" in globals()""")
         assert testdir.runpytest().ret == 0
 
     @pytest.mark.skipif("sys.version_info[0] >= 3")
     def test_detect_coding_cookie_crlf(self, testdir):
-        testdir.makepyfile(test_cookie=u"""
+        testdir.makepyfile(test_cookie="""
             # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
             u"St\xc3\xa4d"
             def test_rewritten():
-                assert "@py_builtins" in globals()""".encode('utf-8'))
+                assert "@py_builtins" in globals()""")
         assert testdir.runpytest().ret == 0
 
     def test_sys_meta_path_munged(self, testdir):