Why Mabel Kirke Will Probably Have an Expanded Role in The Magician’s Nephew | Talking Beasts
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Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan is the latest to join the cast of Greta Gerwig’s upcoming movie adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew. She will play Digory’s mother… who only has a few lines in the book. Should we expect more from this character in the movie? Listen to the discussion and post a comment below!
In the post-show chatter, the podcasters discuss other things in The Magician’s Nephew that will likely be expanded in the movie.
Re-listening to the conversation and I forgot to mention that a adding a scene after Polly and Digory return to London with Jadis (much like the Focus on The Family audio drama where Digory brings grapes to his mum) would be so beneficial to setting up the second half of the story.
I feel the last third of The Magician’s Nephew loses a bit of momentum but a scene with Mable would only strengthen Digory’s character arc and help re-focus the later portion of the book. His search for a cure needs to be top of mind for viewers as Narnia is created.
Excited to see what Mulligan can bring to the role!
Just an aside; I want to give a shoutout to FOTF audio drama for a moment. I think their version of The Magician’s Nephew is one of the best Narnia adaptations! Specifically focusing on the added Digory/Mable scene, a lot of the dialogue was actually just reworked lines from the book from the narrator. I hope Greta Gerwig takes inspiration from that!
Looking forward to reading everyone’s thoughts below 🙂
Yay! A new podcast! I was running out of things to listen to while editing or working with Adobe After Effects, lol.
I think Carey will probably get something similar to Felicity Jones in A Monster Calls,
I think the expansion is necessary to add to the loneliness of Digory and the draw of he choice he maybe inclined to take. I think it’s also fair to remember actors like Issa Rae, Emma McKay, Nichola , Bob Odenkirk had such small parts and so I don’t the core of the story will be changed , it’ll probably be still under 2h.
I think as an adaptation, one of the main challenges is ensuring the final act with journey delivers a cinematic experience, it works on paper but might not provide the same relief on screen if it’s just a straight adaptation
Like it or not there r parallels to the lord of the rings , a journey/ quest where the protagonists must confront their own desires , loneliness to prevent corruption. But the beauty of the decision he makes is that he has complete agency and not the recollection of teachings but an active choice about who he wants to be, so I don’t think it will be Lion King “ Remember “ lol.
I’m also fascinated about how they’ll deal with his father, obviously letters have to read or sent between them as exposition…
Also has has Meryl Streep not done a public engagement in last 4 months in which a journalist can ask the actual question same with Daniel Craig who was at TUDUM 🙂