Von Trapp Family Wishes Carrie Underwood Didn’t Play Iconic Character In ‘Sound Of Music’ Remake

The von Trapp family is making it very clear that they weren’t pleased with Carrie Unerwood performing the iconic character of “Maria” from the equally timeless film The Sound Of Music.

On Thursday night, NBC debuted a new, live reboot of the 1965 classic starring the legendary Julie Andrews in the role of Maria, and Christopher Plummer as Captain Von Trapp.

When the Von Trapp family found out last Spring that the peacock network was planning to bring back to life their real life story to the small screen after almost 50 years, they weren’t all too pleased.

The Sound of Music tells of how the Von Trapp family escapes Austria as the Nazis invade the country during the beginning of World War II.

Myles von Trapp Derbyshire is the great-grandson of Maria von Trapp, the matriarch of the family, portrayed by Oscar-winner Julie Andrews in the 1965 film.

But as a member of the famed Von Trapp family, he was not happy with the casting of Carrie Underwood in the NBC special live version.

“It’s just upsetting that this could potentially be the final broadcast of our story,” he said. “And although her voice is amazing, she doesn’t have acting experience (…) It’s just the overall image, she’s a country star, she won American Idol, she’s very public in kind of a tabloid way.” Myles Von Trapp commented.

Carrie Underwood is an award winning country music performer, and Von Trapp doesn’t diminish her musical talent — which she displayed during the show.

The 28-year-old, who lives in New York, is very proud of his family’s legacy and said, according to ABC, “Now we have this very glossy, tabloid figure playing this role.”

He explained that Andrews and also Mary Martin, who played Maria von Trapp on Broadway in the 1950s, were both well-respected actresses.

If not Underwood, then who would the von Trapp family have liked to see play the role of Maria?

“[Our family has] had the conversations of who could play this role better and it was Anne Hathaway, for example,” he said. “Here’s someone who just won an Oscar for a similar situation [in Les Miserables]. She was able to act and sing.”

He is not the only member of the von Trapp family to voice his unhappiness with Underwood’s selection for the role.

Francoise von Trapp posted in a blog, “Carrie Underwood as Maria? Seriously?” when she heard of the casting news.

The 1965 film is based on the book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, which was penned by Maria von Trapp herself, and the musical The Sound of Music, written and arranged by two legends in their own right, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.

Carrie Underwood received hateful messages on Twitter over this role and was forced to defend herself:

“I think so many people out there still don’t understand what we’re doing and, therefore, they do have this incredible ownership over the movie, like ‘You can’t remake that movie!’ I get hate tweets and stuff like that and like, ‘You’re not Julie Andrews!'” she told EW. “I know I’m not — nobody is, and I would never pretend that I was. I know my place, you know?”

Even though the von Trapp family wasn’t happy with the casting of Carrie Underwood as Maria, they don’t condone her receiving hate over it, and were reportedly considering watching the special.