Okay, finally read the news article on the front page and I have little to add on the subject of Polly being an orphan (which, I'm not thoroughly convinced of at this point. Who's she living with then? ) than what I already posted previously.

But I do want to say, in the most polite and respectful way possible, if that's the kind of lines we're going to get in the movie, I don't think Narnia is going to be up for a Best Screenplay Oscar any time soon....

@Impending Doom: First thought is I’m uncomfortable with the idea.

The Magician’s Nephewis uniquely Digory’s story—he’s the clear-cut main character, hence the book’s title.Hispersonal journey is the heart of the book. If Polly is also given a tragic backstory, I worry it could shift some of the emotional weight away from Digory’s arc.

I couldn't agree more. It is true that in the story we see nothing of Polly's family, but then, why should anyone, really? Dads in those bygone days normally were the breadwinners, and often worked long hours, before coming home in the evening. We know why Digory's father, like many others at that time, was not there, when he was in India, in the interminable wars in that region, embroiling not only Great Britain, itself, but also Russia, Iran, China, etc., not to mention the French & Portuguese. 

All we know is that Polly, that year, was unable to go to the seaside, like her family had been doing, & so was unable to spend time with people she normally holidayed with. And that when she returned home from her adventure with Digory she was sent to her room after a meal without dessert, for coming home late & getting her clothes dirty. When doing laundry in those days was such a major chore, girls, especially, weren't allowed to get their clothes dirty, if possible, since it was difficult to get those clothes clean again. 

Ha-Joon Chang in his 2008 23 things they didn't tell you about Capitalism said: The washing machine has changed the world more than the internet has. And he was right, when the washing machine not only freed up mainly women's time but also removed the need to employ maids to do such household drudgery. If Polly had been an orphan, she wouldn't be available to be playing with Digory, anyway & most likely, even if she were allowed to play with Digory that first time, she'd be sentenced to be in the laundry, with or without the maid's supervision, being told to catch up with the clothes washing. 

Posted by: @fantasia

But I do want to say, in the most polite and respectful way possible, if that's the kind of lines we're going to get in the movie, I don't think Narnia is going to be up for a Best Screenplay Oscar any time soon....

Well, it beats the leaked audition pages for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Anyone remember those?  

@col-klink, fair point! Those were..... so awful.

Posted by: @col-klink

But having her entire family be dead sounds like overkill. That line in the audition scene strikes me as weirdly over the top.

Agreed. I wouldn’t want them to kill off Polly’s entire family just to force her into a vulnerable place. That would feel like an unnecessarily dramatic addition that has been done before. Polly is already an interesting character without needing a tragic backstory to make her compelling.

Posted by: @ajpevensie

Event 3: She is adopted and there is no back story about her family.

 

I almost see this more as Jill's background rather than Polly but that's for another thread/time 😉 

Posted by: @coracle

I read her comment as a throwaway line: it doesn't even make sense that 'everyone she knows is dead', because how could she know them? If she only refers to the male line, she is probably exaggerating to say everyone is dead, or maybe she's just been arguing with her mother (over why they're not going to the seaside?) and pretends she is dead too.

I like this theory—it makes sense as an exaggeration, especially if Polly is frustrated with her mother in the moments before when we're introduced to her. It’s plausible and wouldn’t technically break canon, and I can see Gerwig being interested in playing up that mother/daughter dynamic a little. I'll keep an open mind, but I’d rather the focus not shift too much towards Polly’s mother.

Given that Gerwig has sons of her own and even named the audition character after one of them, I don’t think there’s much risk of Digory being completely sidelined here.