Just because you haven't seen Anna Popplewell since the last Chronicles of Narnia film doesn't mean she's disappeared into the wardrobe.
Popplewell and the rest of her on-screen siblings who played the Pevensie children in the Chronicles of Narnia showed so much promise starring in the franchise. After it ended, however, it was like they all just went back into the wardrobe because we never heard of them again. Ben Barnes seems to be the only successful one out of the whole cast, having just secured a great role in another fantasy, Netflix's Shadow and Bone.
It's sad that Popplewell, and the rest, didn't gain even more success following the successful franchise. She appeared in CW's Reign for a time, but that was the last time we saw her. Where did she go?
She Was Off To A Great Start
After the TV movie Frenchman's Creek in 1998, Popplewell starred in the Jane Austen adaptation, Mansfield Park, and then the Disney movie, Little Vampire, where she charmed her way into our hearts. By the time she was 15 years old, she was starred Scarlet Johansson's Girl with a Pearl Earring.
In 2005, she got the role of Susan in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But she didn't pick up any roles between the hit film, its sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and the third film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
That may have been because she'd been attending Oxford since 2007. She graduated with a BA in English Literature from Oxford University the same year she ended her time as Susan. When asked if she'd ever return to Narnia, Popplewell said she'd love to because she got really close with her on-screen siblings.
"I think the nice thing about our relationship is that we all know and understand each other’s good bits and bad bits, and we’re all able to tolerate the bad bits," she told Rotten Tomatoes. After Prince Caspian in 2008, Popplewell wasn't sure what her next step as an actress would be.
"I’m reading a lot of stuff, and I’m trying to find things that fit into my summer holidays and work around university, but I’d love to do some stage. I’m really enjoying doing student drama in Oxford. But I’d like to do something small and character-based and maybe work up from that. Perhaps something period, but I’m not sure," she continued.
Following her graduation in 2010, Popplewell starred in the TV movie Brave New World.
She Starred In 'Halo 4'
In 2012, Popplewell starred in Payback Season and then the live-action mini-series, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, based on the famous Xbox video game. Popplewell told Fan Carpet that she didn't know anything about the game coming on to do the project. When she got the part, she prepared by reading lots about it and started playing the game.
"It’s a double-edged sword really; having material that has so many fans because, on the one hand, it’s thrilling and exciting to be part of something that has such a huge audience already, and also there’s a reason it has such a huge audience already; cause it’s fab, it’s also quite daunting because you don’t want to let people down and you know there’s a lot of expectation surrounding a project like this," she said.
While she didn't get good at playing the game, she did get perfect playing her character, Chyler Silva; with the help of the mandatory Military Boot Camp, the filmmakers made the main cast attend before shooting. But even though it was a very long and rigorous experience for her, it was just as rewarding.
Following Halo 4, Popplewell starred as Lola Narcisse in CW's hit historical drama, Reign, based on the early life of Mary, Queen of Scots. Lola is one of Mary's ladies in waiting. She travels to France with the soon-to-be queen of France and Scotland, who is to marry Prince Francis. Lola, and the rest of the ladies in waiting, try to find their own husbands in the French court as well. Throughout her three seasons on the show, Lola found herself in often dire situations. She has a scandalous pregnancy and an even more scandalous marriage. Popplewell prepared for her pregnant scenes by watching a lot of Call the Midwife.
After Reign, Popplewell starred in the short, The Last Birthday and then took a two-year break from acting. In 2019, she returned with You Are Here and an appearance on the series The Left Right Game. So far, her next roles will come in The Gallery and Fairytale, which are both without release dates.
More recently, Popplewell has been keeping busy by reuniting with her Narnia co-stars. In 2019, Barnes shared a photo of the reunion, which saw Popplewell, William Moseley, and Georgie Henley, joined by the film’s producer Andrew Adamson and actress Alina Phelan Ballou, out to dinner. Apparently, Skander Keynes (Edmund) couldn't make it because Barnes added the hashtag #WhereAreYouSkander?
Seeing the photo, ten years after Prince Caspian, reminded us that although Popplewell and the rest of the cast didn't go on to become even more famous, they remained friends and successful in their own right. We'd rather not go through long hiatuses without them. It's not like they can return from their hiatuses young again, like their Narnia characters.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErZ%2Bippeoe6S7zGiYp6aRYr2wvM%2BlnLCdnKF6rrvVopysZZGjsW7A1WaqoaenqHq4tMCtZKGZoKWyr7HDaA%3D%3D