Anne Shirley is nothing short of a folk hero in Canada, and the original two part series of her story in 1985 was one of the highest rated dramas ever on Canadian television. The story would capture American hearts just as much the next year. Fans of Anne of Green Gables are getting another adaptation of her story in 2017 when Netflix debuts their original series Anne.
The drama will be released in eight episodes that will stream globally on Netflix and air (like the original series) on CBC in Canada in 2017. Emmy winning Breaking Bad writer Moira Walley-Beckett is at the helm of the show, so it’s clear Netflix is out to make a quality product.
As in the original, the series focuses on a young orphan girl in the late 1800s, who after an abusive childhood, is mistakenly sent to live with an elderly woman and her brother. Anne eventually transforms their lives as well as the small town in which they live. The new series is even being filmed on location in Prince Edward Island, where the original story is set.
This retelling won’t be completely the same as the original, with Walley-Beckett promising a “grittier” take on Shirley’s story. “This is a very grounded, real version of the story” she said, noting that life in Prince Edward Island in the late 1800s was a “hard, gritty and scrappy. It was messy and covered in red mud, not doilies and teacups.”
