Many fans are still upset that Anne With an E was canceled a day after the release of season 3 on Netflix, which concluded with Anne and some of her friends beginning their young adult lives away from home. This was a result of the show not reaching its intended target audience, and some previous issues CBC had working with Netflix.
Anne With An E premiered on CBC in March 2017 and quickly became available worldwide on Netflix two months later. The series is based on the beloved book series written by Lucy Maud Montgomery in 1907, and fans were thrilled to see a new interpretation of the heartwarming childhood story.
The series includes many of the best-known beats from Netflix’s novel adaptation of Anne of Green Gables: orphaned Anne who arrives to stay with siblings who they thought had sent for a child; her fight in her classroom with Gilbert Blythe, but she also digs into her traumatic past and traces the bitterness and xenophobia that lingers in the town of Avonlea.
The perspective achieved is thanks to Moira Walley-Beckett, writer and producer of Breaking Bad and Flesh and Bone, among others; who worked with director Niki Caro (Whale Rider) to bring Anne With an E to life. But if that all sounds too out of context, rest assured that Anne With an E has a lot to do with it all, thanks to Amybeth McNulty, the Irish actress who played the lead and who spends much of the show in her own flower-filled fantasy world.
How did Amybeth McNulty get the lead role of Anne With An E? 2,000 actresses auditioned on 3 continents, as the role was very important to its creators and they went to great lengths to find the right Anne for her.
Amybeth seemed to impress from the beginning, but the curiosity is that she was not within the search area that the creators of Anne With an E initially raised and was able to submit a video of her own thanks to the online audition they allowed. Writer Moira Walley-Beckett had a few words about this selection process.
“It was a huge search because without the right Anne, we didn’t have a show. We did a search online where any girl could upload an audition. Amybeth caught our eye from the first moment we saw her tape and by meeting her in person we quickly knew that was our girl.
