FAQ

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is based on Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (1951), the second novel in The Chronicles of Narnia series by British writer and academian C.S. Lewis [1898-1963].

There are seven books in the Narnia series. In publication order, they are: (1) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950), (2) Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (1951), (3) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), (4) The Silver Chair (1953), (5) The Horse and His Boy (1954), (6) The Magician's Nephew (1955), and(7) The Last Battle (1956). Chronologically, however, The Magician's Nephew takes place prior to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Horse and His Boy takes place between The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. In The Chronicals of Narnia movie series Prince Caspian is preceded by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) (2005) and followed by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) (2010). The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair are in development, but no release dates have been set.

They are using the order in which the books were first published, not the chronological order which the books' stories represent. In a letter written in 1957 to an American boy named Laurence, C.S. Lewis expressed a mild preference for chronological order, but ultimately felt that it did not really matter in which order they were read: I think I agree with your order {i.e. chronological} for reading the books more than with your mother's. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and still didn't think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last. But I found as I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them. I'm not even sure that all the others were written in the same order in which they were published. Douglas Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis, and co-producer on the movies, commented that they were filming the books in "the most logically consistent order for filming."

OTHER: This is the order. Lion Witch first, then Prince, then Voyage. The Magician's Nephew is fifth in the series, not first. It's meant to be read after knowing all the ins and outs of Narnia, and then learning of how they came to be. Putting TMN first makes no sense.

Yes. Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), and Lucy (Georgie Henley) Pevensie all participate in this movie.

Isacc Asimov, in his book on Shakespeare's plays, notes that a standard fairy tale plot involves a "wicked uncle" who is entrusted with a child nephew's property, but does not want to give it up when the child is old enough to claim it. Often he tries to kill the nephew, who must therefore fight both to defend his life and to reclaim his "rightful" property. Shakespeare used the plot in three plays: Richard III, King John, and Hamlet. Obviously the summary fits Prince Caspian as well. There is no direct Biblical background for this story (like some of the others), however; they were based on medieval relationships. CS Lewis was a professor of literature and would have been very familiar with them, as well as famously infusing the story with elements of Christianity.

Narnia had humans from the moment it was created. Explained in The Magician's Nephew: When Narnia is created by Aslan; a boy, a girl, and a cab driver are there to witness it. The cabby Frank, because he is brave and noble, is named by Aslan the first king of Narnia. His wife (from our world) Helen is transported there and they live happily ever after. The white witch will eventually kill the kings and queens (their descendants) somewhere down the line, after which the Pevensies step in, etc.

In the book, Prince Caspian is described as being a boy of about the same age as Peter. According to Lewis' Narnia Timeline, Caspian is 13 years old, and Peter 14 years old during this story. However, since William Moseley (who plays Peter) is now 20 years old and Ben Barnes (Caspian) is 26 years old, the age difference is not actually that much.

In the book, the Telmarines are said to be descended from pirates who crossed over from our world into theirs. The filmmakers have elaborated on the Telmarines origins in many parts of the design. The accent is designed to reflect the Telmarines pirate ancestry, and to serve as a contrast to the Pevensies and the Narnians. Production designer Roger Ford originally wanted the Telmarines to be French, as they had a confrontational history with the English, who are represented by the Pevensies. Andrew Adamson then suggested they take this a step further and make them Mediterranean. The final accent ended up being a hybrid of Spanish and Italian with an English intonation due to the various nationalities of the actors involved.

The Telmarines are descendants of pirates from our world. Their origin, as described in the book, is as follows: Many years ago in that world, in a deep sea of that world which is called the South Sea, a shipload of pirates were driven by storm in an island. And there they did as pirates would; killed the natives and took the native women for wives, and made palm wine, and drank and were drunk, and lay in the shade of the palm trees, and woke up and quarreled, and sometimes killed one another. And in one of these frays six were put to flight by the rest and fled with their women into the center of the island and up a mountain, and went, as they thought, into a cave to hide. But it was one of the magical places of that world, one of the chinks or chasms between that world and this. There were many chinks or chasms between worlds in old times, but they have grown rarer. This was one of the last; I do not say the last. And so they fell, or rose, or blundered, or dropped right through, and found themselves in this world, in the Land of Telmar which was then unpeopled. But why it was unpeopled is a long story; I will not tell it now. And in Telmar their descendants lived and became fierce and proud people; and after many generations there was a famine in Telmar and they invaded Narnia, which was then in some disorder (but that also would be a long story), and conquered it and ruled it. For the movie, the producers expanded upon this pirate heritage and conceived the Telmarines as Spanish pirates. They are depicted as a race with dark hair, thick beards, and with strong Spanish or Italian accents. The actors that play Miraz and his general are both Italian.

For this movie, creature effects producer Howard Berger wanted to introduce a greater range of diversity and variation into the look of the Narnian creatures. In the first movie, he felt that the majority of the Narnian army ended up being 23-year-old, male New Zealanders, due to the budgetary constraints they were working under. This time he wanted to introduce a greater variety of ages, races, genders. and sizes. As a result, there are now child centaurs, elderly fauns, heavy-set characters, and a family of "African-Narnian Centaurs" consisting of lead centaur Glenstorm (Cornell John), his wife Windmane (Lejla Abbasová), and their three sons: Ironhoof (Yemi Akinyemi), Suncloud (Carlos Silva Da Silva), and Rainstone (Ephraim Goldin).

Lucy returns to the battlefield with Aslan at her side. As the Telmarines begin to cross the Great River on the newly-built bridge, Aslan roars. His roar calls up the river god who destroys the bridge and kills Lord Sopespian (Damián Alcázar). The battle now over, Susan, Peter, Edmund, and Caspian approach Aslan and bow. Aslan orders them to stand up and makes it clear that Caspian is to rule Narnia as its king. The band of little mice then approach, bearing a wounded Reepicheep on a litter. Lucy feeds him some of her magic potion, which heals him. Reepicheep attempts to bow to Aslan but realizes that he has lost his tail, so Aslan restores it. Trumpkin is next to bow to Aslan, finally realizing that Aslan is indeed real. Aslan leads them all to the Telmarine castle. In an assembly of all the Telmarines, Caspian announces that Narnia again belongs to the Narnians and that those Telmarines who wish to stay may do so. Aslan then informs them that the original Telmarines were actually pirates belonging to the Earth world, having been teleported to Narnia through a portal on an island where they were shipwrecked. Aslan creates a portal in a tree trunk so that any Telmarines wishing to begin a new life on Earth can go through. Glozelle and Queen Prunaprismia (Alicia Borrachero) are the first takers. After many hugs, the Pevensies also enter the portal, having been told that Peter and Susan will not return to Narnia again, although Edmund and Lucy will. Susan regretfully kisses Caspian goodbye, telling him that it wouldn't work between them anyway, saying, "I am about thirteen hundred years older than you are." On the other side of the portal, they find themselves back in the Strand Underground station where they first started out. In the final scene, they board the train, and Edmund bemoans the fact that he left his electric torch in Narnia.

"The Call" by Regina Spektor.

Although the first film featured a brief additional scene part-way through the credits, this movie does not.

There are many terrific sources of information about Narnia movie news. NarniaFans.com and NarniaWeb.com have by far the biggest coverage of Narnia movie news, as well as having behind-the-scenes set reports, and many cast interviews.The official movie site, Narnia.com, has also been running an exclusive production blog, which includes concept art and some behind the scenes footage.