Will Poulter “Too Old” to Play Eustace in The Silver Chair

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair will be starting with a clean slate for the franchise, Director Joe Johnston emphasized on Saturday.

New Cast

Joe finally put the nail in the coffin in case there was any doubt remaining: Will Poulter will not be reprising his role as Eustace Clarence Scrubb in The Silver Chair. But his age was not Joe’s only reason:

“Will Poulter is a very good actor, but he’s too old to play Eustace now. But beyond that, I want to set this apart from the other trilogy. So, I’m going to start with an all-new cast.”

Poulter is 24 now, 15 years older than the character in the book according to C.S. Lewis’s timeline. The actor most recently appeared in Detroit. (Speaking of casting, Johnston said his ideal choice to play Puddleglum would be a young John Cleese)

New Look

Joe added that The Silver Chair will not follow the design aesthetic of previous Narnia films.

“This is going to look different. It’s going to reflect my vision of what I think The Silver Chair is – the book. I have a production designer who is starting very shortly who I’m very excited about is going to design an amazing film. […] I want to open this film up; I don’t want it to feel like it was shot on a stage. So, a lot of it will be shot on location, probably in New Zealand on the South Island.”

New Trilogy

“Everything is new; this is the beginning of a brand-new trilogy. We will make reference to characters and events in the other films as the book does, but think of this as the beginning of an all-new trilogy.”

This certaintly raises interesting questions since there are four books remaining in the series, but perhaps Joe will elaborate in a future video. Stay tuned!

We will be discussing all the latest news in the next episode of our biweekly podcast, Talking Beasts. Look for it on Tuesday May 30.

81 Responses

  1. Brian Boru says:

    Perhaps but how does that facilitate for Diggory and Polly and the Pevensies appearances in LB 1 and 2 without the events of The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and Boy having being filmed? Though perhaps the events of those books are alluded to through a combination of story-telling and flash-back to flesh out LB 1 and 2?

  2. DancingLawn22 says:

    They can still use older Will and the old Pevensie cast in latter books (like the HHB and TLB).

  3. Rick kuhn says:

    Vodt was appalling. A new vision is needed. Also Jill and distance aren't the pevensys. A sequel needs to be different or it fails.

  4. Anhun says:

    No, please. Aslan should have more bass in his voice, like a lion's growl. Anthony Hopkins would sound too much like a tame lion.

  5. Anhun says:

    It's not just that the books are 50 years old, but each of the stories, with the arguable exception of LB, has a self-contained plot. If you were to read SC as a stand-alone book, you would be able to follow it just as well.

    There's also the matter of almost a decade passing since the last film in the Walden series, and more than a decade passing since the last well-attended film.

  6. Anhun says:

    Since repetition is the name of the game:

    No tame lions in Narnia!

  7. Anhun says:

    Even 14 is too old for Eustace. He and Jill are solidly pre-teen, 12, maybe 13, at the oldest.

  8. dufflehunter01 says:

    Anthony Hopkins doesn't seem right for Aslan. He would make a wonderful old Caspian, though (he does sleeping old guys really well (watch thor). Or Anthony Hopkins would be an interesting choice for puddleglum.

  9. HPofNARNIA says:

    Charles Dance would be a good choice to voice Aslan as well.

  10. Houston says:

    I want silver chair to stay as it is don't make a new trilogy unless it's Magicians Nephew or Horses Boy

  11. Houston says:

    Ok you can't start over the trilogy that would be awful you would ruin 3 other movies for us put what hallrnds in the book and you will make more money if not well that's your problem

  12. So sad to hear it. I know that the final result will be awesome but sad to hear that the previous crew will not appear on the screen. I love the previous crew a lot.The decision of making of Silver Chair should be taken earlier when they were younger. Who are in the crew now?

  13. Rick kuhn says:

    Pg the pevensies aren't in this one only Eustace, and the actor Will poulter is too old.

  14. Anhun says:

    I'd rather MN be filmed in Kazakhstan.

  15. FilmReel says:

    David Magee told me on Twitter today that he supposes that they are in pre-pre-production.

    "I suppose we're in pre-pre-production — not in active casting phase yet — but moving on pace and going strong."

    So I guess we won't be getting any casting announcements for another few months but I still think we will get a release date announcement before July.

  16. Billy Swift says:

    vote on your dream cast for the movie!
    https://www.mycast.io/movies/the-chronicles-of-narnia

  17. Ezra says:

    David Suchet would be perfect for the role of Aslan as he had already done voice acting for the radio drama series of Narnia 🙂

  18. Shannon says:

    I'll be honest here: too many changes can be dangerous. Most of Narnia fans I know liked at least the LWW and PC movies. If they make it too different from previous ones it will no longer feel like a Narnia movie. And personally, the first one really got most things right. Can we have a movie that is as good as the book? I hope so. But now I'm much more scared than excited. I'll just wait to know more.

  19. Ryth says:

    While I understand that Will Poulter is too old to play Eustace, I'm pretty disappointed that they're completely starting over. The other films weren't always perfect, but I got attached to the characters and the aesthetic, and that version of Narnia is what I often imagine now. I would have even liked to see Ben Barnes appear as Caspian again.
    I'm glad that they're still making the movies, but it's yet another reboot 🙁

  20. Sameeha says:

    I don't like the idea. I really loved the old cast and was attached to it . I was looking further to see them . I am relly disappointed . Pls don't do this, And the
    new triology will ruin the previous movies

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