Young Edmund is the most boisterous and mischievous of the Pevensie family and, once in Narnia, finds himself dangerously tempted to join forces with the White Witch. To portray the playful little rascal who learns to do the right thing, the filmmakers struggled to find the right actor and didn't discover Skandar Keynes until the very last moment.
"Edmund is probably the most developed character in the book, and he was in some ways the easiest to know what to look for, but the hardest to find," Adamson comments. "Then along came Skandar and he was really bright, funny, energetic, just full of beans, and very wicked. He had a wonderful darkness in his eyes and was mischievous, sweet and adorable all at the same time. Those were the character traits I really wanted Edmund to have, to be able to pull off this darkness and still be lovable."
Hailing from a London family related to Charles Darwin, and the son of author Randall Keynes, Skandar impressed everyone on the set with his youthful smarts and wisdom. Now 14, he had first read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as an eight-year-old, which is also when he was first completely taken by Edmund. "I prefer my character over all the others. I really think I have the best character," the young actor says with his typical bravado. "Of course, he's a lot like me. He is the tyrant of the family, which I am, and, yep, he succumbs to temptation very easily. Edmund is the black sheep of the family, always teasing Lucy. But, in the end, Narnia makes him good. He goes through the most radical change, starts to appreciate his family. The adventure really changes him into a better person."