There will be a new face in the coming-of-age Netflix drama series Anne With an E season 3. With production finally moving along, various casting calls have been announced, and the show has found its Indigenous young character.
Kiawenti:io Tarbell, a 12-year-old Mohawk actress, has been cast to play Ka'kwet. The character will make friends with Anne Shirley (played by Amybeth McNulty) in the series, according to CBC.
Ka-kwet is described as a Mi'kmaq who has quite the independent spirit. Anne With an E showrunner Moira Walley-Beckett said that they were lucky to have found Tarbell after doing an open casting call across Canada.
The young star will join other Indigenous Anne With an E adult actors like Dana Jeffrey and Brandon Oakes. But aside from an expanded cast, Anne With an E season 3 will also have an expanded storyline.
The new season will continue to tackle the lead character's experiences. This time, however, she turns 16 years old, which will bring her to new worlds and new places.
In fact, production for Anne With an E season 3 took place for the very first time in the countryside of northern Caledon in the last few weeks. It will be the setting of the first two episodes of the third season, according to the Caledon Enterprise.
Walley-Becket said that Anne With an E season 3 will be the series' most intense season in terms of themes like romance, inclusivity and the growing pains for many of its characters. The showrunner confirmed that they are stretching a few elements from the original book source to fit the show's storytelling for its Netflix audience.
Anne With an E is based on the classic Canadian literature Anne of Green Gables written and published by Lucy Montgomery in 1908. Its story is about an orphaned child who was mistakenly sent to work and live at the Cuthbert farm in Avonlea. The novel charted her experiences as an outsider and an adopted child.
Meanwhile, Netflix has not yet announced when Anne With an E season 3 will premiere. In the first season in 2017, the streaming platform released the series six weeks after it aired on CBC. The second season, however, has been streaming on Netflix before CBC aired the episodes on its channel.
In August 2018, Netflix and CBC renewed the show for a third season. Production was initially planned to start last winter, but work on the set didn't begin until this spring. According to Deadline, the show is targeted for release in late 2019.
