I first read Anne of Green Gables when I was 9 or 10. I have a very vivid memory of reading the book for the first time. It was spring and I had been dragged along (probably unwillingly) to my brother’s baseball practice. Bored with watching a bunch of 7-year-olds attempt to play baseball, I had wandered off, book in hand, to a nearby playground, where I climbed up into this thing that I can only describe as a giant metal bagel, with just enough space in its hollowed-out inside for a small person to sit. I settled in and began to read.
I can still see it in my head: me, the book propped up on my knees, the odd metal bagel chipping red paint beneath me, the breeze playing with the pages and my hair. Sitting there, I became engrossed in the book. I loved the titular heroine, Anne Shirley, and the troubles she kept getting herself into. I thought the book was hilarious. And as Anne lovingly appreciated the natural beauty of her home, the fictional town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, describing the picturesque flowers, trees, and lanes, I felt a concurrent appreciation for my surroundings, for the verdant fields and wildflowers that stretched from the edges of the playground where I was sitting into the horizon, springtime come to rural Ohio. I felt a connection to this girl and her colorful imagination. The book and its sequels quickly became favorites that I would return to many times.
Last week, when Netflix released a trailer for a new miniseries based on Anne of Green Gables, this time known simply as Anne, I was beyond excited. The story has been adapted many times, from a beloved TV show in the 80s to a musical to a Japanese anime. However, the new trailer promises a stormier, more melodramatic retelling of orphaned Anne Shirley’s story than we have ever seen before. One scene shows Anne standing on the edge of a cliff in a nightgown, wind whipping around her, a tortured expression on her face. Another shows a schoolmate declaring to Anne disdainfully, “I won’t eat next to dirty trash,” which is a departure from the books, where Anne had little trouble finding friends at school. There is clearly a darker tone to this new miniseries than were are used to associating with the often light-hearted original.
At the same time, there are little touches that signify that this is the same story that we know and love. In the trailer, we see Anne become friends with her neighbor Diana Barry, as well as the famous scene where she whacks Gilbert Blythe over the head with a slate for making fun of her hair.
Also familiar is the trailer’s depiction of Anne’s powerful imagination, which allows her to cope when facing adversity as a young orphan, and its depiction of the natural beauty of Prince Edward Island, something that I always loved in the books. The show’s writer and producer, Emmy-winning Moira Walley-Beckett, has promised that the show has “the heart and soul of the book” but is at the same time “telling a new story,” one that is grittier than we are used to.
I, for one, am excited to see where the new retelling goes. I also think that Anne, with her love for writing melodramatic short stories full of anguish, where the heroines always face perilous uncertainties, would appreciate the new lens that her story is getting.
The series premieres on Netflix on May 12. Let me know what you think of the series in the comments; I would love to hear your thoughts!