Trailing off with the third installment in 2010, theChronicles of Narniamovies are underrated but hardly flawless, and some strange creative choices possibly contributed to the initial movie franchise’s early end. After the stunning debut ofThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobein 2005, filmmakers quickly got to work on the following book, which meant casting British actor Ben Barnes as the title character, Prince Caspian, destined to become the new king of Narnia.Prince Caspiandrastically changed the book’s plot, and this is where the movies started to see a poorer reception.
Prince Caspiansees the four Pevensie siblings return to Narnia,to find that a thousand years have passed, and the land has been invaded by the Telmarine people, with a brutal king now in power. They set out to help the king’s outcasted nephew reclaim the throne and restore the kingdom to the Narnians.Netflix’sNarniarebootwill more than likely be re-adapting this story eventually, with Greta Gerwig putting her spin on it, but Ben Barnes was still compelling in the role. However,Narniais in good handswhen Gerwig as a director probably won’t make the same nonsensical choices concerning Caspian.
Ben Barnes Was Against Dropping Prince Caspian’s Accent In The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader
Caspian’s Actor Saw The Problem With This Change
The Telmarine population from which Caspian hails is loosely characterized as Mediterranean, andBen Barnes adopted a Spanish accent for thePrince Caspianmovie.However, when he returned forThe Voyage of the Dawn Treader, he was told by the new director to return to his real English accent, a choice that Barnes was against. As far as why Caspian is suddenly, inexplicably British, Barnes revealed in a live stream withNarniaWebin 2020 that he fought the change, but evidently failed:
“After the second film, a new director [Michael Apted] took over and said, ‘I don’t think the Telmarines need to speak with that accent, so maybe just use you own accent.’ So, in the third film, I just had to go back to using my own accent. Let it be known for the record that I did fight tooth and nail to keep the accent because I said, ‘Well we’ve started with it, so we can’t just drop it now. It’s about the character.'”
The Telmarines’ accents inPrince Caspianwere already regarded as somewhat jarring, without there being a clear, hard reason for them. However, Barnes spotted that the abrupt shift would be even more disruptive, as he had already established a certain version of this character in the movie universe. Letting him use his own accent, to begin with, might have been the right choice, avoiding potential errors with his adopted accent, but this was already said and done by the time ofThe Voyage of the Dawn Treader— the movie that would ultimately endNarnia’s first cinematic run.
Why Prince Caspian’s Accent Changed In The Chronicles Of Narnia Movies
The New Director Seemed To Want To Return To English Narnia
Barnes suggests thatVoyage of the Dawn Treaderdirector Michael Apted simply thought that the accent wasn’t necessary — which it wasn’t. As for why he deliberately chose to break the movies' continuity, there is more debate. According toIMDb, under the “incorrectly regarded as goofs” section: “This is done purposefully by the filmmakers, who no longer needed to match Caspian’s accent to the other Telmarines. […] People’s accents change over time in real life as well.” It has been suggested that in-universe, Caspian’s accent shifted the more time he spent around the Narnians, who are all seemingly British.
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While Caspian’s accent could have realistically changed somewhat as he lived among people who spoke differently, it seems unlikely that it would have been completely eradicated, and there would still be some of his old accent after only three years. IMDb touches upon a salient point, that there is less thematic reason in the third movie to associate Caspian with the foreign population of the Telmarines. At this point, he is fully accepted as Narnia’s king, any remaining Telmarines have faded into background character status, andthe director likely wanted to connect Caspian to the rest of the cast.
The Narnia Movies' Telmarine Accent Was An Odd Choice, But Barnes Is Right About Continuity
It Maybe Wasn’t The Right Choice, But They Should Have Held Their Ground
Barnes also discussed with NarniaWeb the general oddity of the Telmarine actors being told to use Spanish accents, when the characters speak English, and many of the actors were actually Italian.Barnes mentioned that his only real reference for a Spanish accent in spoken English in a movie, at the time, was Inigo Montoya inThe Princess Bride,on which he based his accent. It was ultimately a superficial choice that was made for the sake of associating the Telmarines with conquistadors, which might have worked better if they had researched the historical counterpart more and cast actors who actually had this accent.
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However, Barnes is ultimately right that the change in accent was to the detriment of the last movie, illustrating a kind of carelessness on the part of the franchise overall. Because the various installments ofThe Chronicles of Narniaare largely standalone adventures, there is some room for different directors to bring their own visions and change the plot how they like. Perhaps the one thing that needed to remain consistent was the characterizations; Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund’s (Skandar Keynes) arcs develop fairly naturally after the previous movies, but too many tonal changes are introduced to Caspian’s story.
