<P> Approximately 1800 girls on three continents auditioned for the role of Anne Shirley . Amybeth McNulty was chosen for her ability to deliver dialogue which is "incredibly thick and dynamic and beautiful", according to Miranda de Pencier . Walley - Beckett describes her as at once "luminous," transparent, smart, soulful and emotional . </P> <P> The series has occasionally filmed on Prince Edward Island but, for budgetary reasons, it has primarily been filmed in Southern Ontario, at a Toronto studio, at outdoor locations in or near Toronto including Black Creek Pioneer Village, in Waterloo Region at locations including Doon Pioneer Village, and in communities such as Millbrook, Pickering, Hamilton, and Caledon . </P> <P> The opening theme is the song "Ahead by a Century" performed and originally composed by Canadian band The Tragically Hip . </P> <P> Moira Walley - Beckett had this to say about her treatment, which is darker than the previous productions: "In this day and age, themes of identity, prejudice, bullying, being an outsider, searching for a way to be accepted and how to belong are entirely topical and super relevant, and those are themes that are built into the story of' Anne ."' She went on to call Anne Shirley an "accidental feminist", and how she "really wanted to tell this story now ." For the second season, according to what she called her "master plan", Walley - Beckett introduced an entirely new character of her own, Bash, to reflect the racial diversity present in and around Charlottetown at the time of the novel, with a view to representing a community absent from previous adaptations, achieving this by having Gilbert travel on a steamship and meet with the new character in Trinidad: "Bash is the vehicle to explore intolerance and inequality, even more when he goes to The Bog, when he learns that other black people live there ." Walley - Beckett explained: "The Bog is the community that's just outside of Charlottetown, where people of color were marginalized and had their own community there ." </P>

Who wrote the theme song for anne with an e