A family moves to the countryside, three kids wander into the woods behind their new house, and they find a tree so tall it disappears into the clouds, with a rotating cast of magical lands at the top. That’s The Magic Faraway Tree, the first-ever film version of Enid Blyton’s beloved books, and it lands in US theaters on August 21. The woodland looks like something out of a dream, but most of it is real. Here’s exactly where it was shot.
The Magic Faraway Tree At a Glance
- Based on: Enid Blyton’s The Enchanted Wood (1939) and The Magic Faraway Tree (1943). This is the first live-action film version, though a 1997 BBC animated series (Enid Blyton’s Enchanted Lands) adapted the books before it
- Director: Ben Gregor (All Stars, Fatherhood)
- Writer: Simon Farnaby
- Starring: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Nicola Coughlan, Nonso Anozie, Jessica Gunning, Jennifer Saunders, Rebecca Ferguson
- Runtime: 1h 50m
- UK release: March 27, 2026 (already in cinemas)
- US release: August 21, 2026
- Filmed in: Surrey Hills, Windsor Great Park, south Oxfordshire (near Henley), Shinfield Studios (Berkshire), and Malta
Watch the Trailer
What Is The Magic Faraway Tree About?
Tim and Polly Thompson (Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy) are a modern family with three tech-obsessed kids, Beth, Fran, and Joe. When Polly discovers her employer secretly built spy cameras into the smart fridge she designed, she quits on the spot, and Tim finally gets to chase a long-held dream: moving the family out to the countryside to start a tomato sauce business.
Out there, the kids stumble on a colossal, ancient tree at the edge of the woods near their new home, and it turns out to be the entrance to a string of ever-changing magical lands. Along the way they meet Moonface (Nonso Anozie), Silky (Nicola Coughlan), Dame Washalot (Jessica Gunning), and Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), while Jennifer Saunders plays Grandma Thompson and Rebecca Ferguson takes on Dame Snap, one of Blyton’s most memorable villains, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Underneath the fantasy, it’s really a story about a family who’ve drifted apart re-learning how to actually be together.
Who’s In the Cast?
Andrew Garfield & Claire Foy as Tim and Polly Thompson
Garfield and Foy play the parents trying to reset their family’s relationship with each other, and with the outside world, after quitting a job and a city life that had quietly been pulling them apart.
The Kids Who Find the Tree
Phoenix Laroche, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, and Billie Gadsdon play Joe, Beth, and Fran Thompson, the three siblings who wander into the Enchanted Wood and find the tree at the heart of the story.
The Magical Faces: Moonface, Silky, Dame Washalot & Saucepan Man
Nonso Anozie, Nicola Coughlan, Jessica Gunning, and Dustin Demri-Burns play the tree’s eccentric, long-running residents, the characters generations of Blyton readers already know by name. The cast is stacked deeper than it first looks, too: Lenny Henry, Michael Palin, and Simon Russell Beale all appear as different versions of “Know-All,” and, in one of the film’s odder flourishes according to Wikipedia’s full cast listing, Judi Dench voices the smart fridge that kicks off the whole story.
The Real Filming Locations
Location manager Harriet Lawrence gave Country & Town House a rare, detailed walkthrough of where the production actually shot, and it’s the most direct account of the film’s locations available anywhere.
Surrey Hills, England
The Thompson family’s new home was filmed at a private estate in the Surrey Hills, south of Guildford. It was one of the very first locations Lawrence scouted, and she took director Ben Gregor to see it on “one of those picture perfect December days,” she told Country & Town House, mist clearing, blue sky, cold air. He fell for it on the spot. The crew came back and filmed there for several weeks.
Photo: Aerial view of the Surrey countryside near Hindhead /Pexels. This is a representative shot of the Surrey Hills, not the actual private estate used for filming, which hasn’t been publicly identified.
Can you visit? Not this exact spot. It’s a private estate, and its precise location hasn’t been made public. The wider Surrey Hills National Landscape (the area’s official designation) is open to everyone, though, with plenty of walking country that looks the part.
Windsor Great Park
The magic woodland itself was filmed in a section of Windsor Great Park that isn’t normally open to the public, which Lawrence says made it “feel very special, and hardly trodden on.” It’s one of the reasons the woodland on screen looks so untouched.
Photo: Strolling down history at The Long Walk, leading straight to the majestic Windsor Castle. This is a representative English woodland shot, not Windsor Great Park itself, and not the exact restricted section used for filming.
Can you visit? Sort of. The specific pocket used for the “magic woodland” is a private, restricted part of the park and isn’t accessible to visitors. But Windsor Great Park’s public areas are free to enter, open year-round from 7am to dusk, with around 16km of paths, lakes, and woodland to explore, according to the park’s official visitor information. It’s a genuinely good day out even if you won’t be standing in the exact frame from the film.
South Oxfordshire, Near Henley
More of the family’s home and several village scenes were filmed in south Oxfordshire, just north of Henley-on-Thames, rounding out the film’s patchwork of “Home Counties” locations.
Photo: Aerial view of Streatley, a Thames-side village in the Chilterns, about 12 miles from Henley / Altaf Shah, Pexels. This is a nearby Chilterns village shown as a representative shot of the wider region, not the exact village used in the film, which hasn’t been named. Suggested filename: oxfordshire-henley-countryside-magic-faraway-tree.jpg
Can you visit? The general area, yes. Henley-on-Thames and the surrounding Chilterns villages are easy day trips from London, though the specific village and house used for filming haven’t been named publicly.
Shinfield Studios, Berkshire
Alongside all the on-location shooting, principal photography began at Shinfield Studios in Berkshire in June 2024, according to Wikipedia’s sourced production history, a major UK studio complex used for interiors, sets, and the visual-effects-heavy tree sequences. Filming wrapped that September.
Can you visit? No, Shinfield Studios is a working production facility, not a public attraction.
Malta
The one genuine surprise on the list: Malta stands in for the Land of Spells, one of the fantastical worlds at the top of the tree, and it also provided the exteriors for Dame Snap’s strict school.
Photo: Valletta, Malta waterfront / Frosa Katsis, Pexels.
Can you visit? Malta itself, absolutely, it’s a small, easy-to-explore island nation with a well-developed tourism industry. The exact spots used for the Land of Spells and Dame Snap’s school haven’t been confirmed publicly.
Wait, Is the Magic Tree Itself Real?
Not exactly, and the reason why is more interesting than a simple yes or no. The woodland around it is real. But the tree itself, the towering, ancient trunk the whole story is named after, is a mix of a built set piece and visual effects.
Lawrence explained the thinking to Country & Town House: trees genuinely as old and enormous as Blyton describes tend to be very old in real life too, and having a film crew and child actors climbing all over one “is probably not the best thing for the tree.” The team spent months scouting actual trees across the Oxfordshire-to-Surrey area before landing on a deciduous style (ruling out pine, which read as “the darker side of fairy stories,” and beech, which felt too big), then built their version, blending real woodland, a constructed trunk, and CGI into what became, in Lawrence’s words, “our perfect tree.”
FAQ
Where was The Magic Faraway Tree filmed? Primarily across the Home Counties in England: the Surrey Hills (the family home), a restricted section of Windsor Great Park (the magic woodland), and south Oxfordshire near Henley (village and more home scenes). Malta was used for the fantasy Land of Spells and the exteriors of Dame Snap’s school.
Is the tree in The Magic Faraway Tree a real tree? The woodland is real, but the tree itself is a combination of a built prop and visual effects, not one single natural tree.
Can you visit Windsor Great Park from the movie? You can visit Windsor Great Park itself, it’s free and open to the public year-round. The specific section used for filming is a private, restricted area not open to visitors.
When does The Magic Faraway Tree come out in the US? August 21, 2026, in US theaters. It already released in UK cinemas on March 27, 2026.
Is this the first film version of The Magic Faraway Tree? It’s the first live-action feature film. The books were adapted once before, as part of a 1997 BBC animated series called Enid Blyton’s Enchanted Lands.
