Christine Daae Appearances
Pika specifically said in the comments of GND 002 that her Christine would be based more on the book & musicals rather than the various film versions of the character, and very clearly cites the Terry Pratchett 1995 novel Maskerade as an influence on her Christine. There aren't any official live-action or animated takes on this version of Christine, but she does appear on the cover:
Still, Christine's story has been told so prolificially, we can at least look at a few other versions of her. The obvious place to start is the Broadway musical. The first actress to play her in the original cast was Sarah Brightman:
She's obviously a brunette, which is different from our GND Christine. This has been a core character trait of Broadway Christine over the decades. For comparison, here's Julia Udine, the star of both the Broadway & Touring show as recently as 2018, an actress who is actually blonde in real life.
The play Love Never Dies does a lot of damage to Christine as a character and is resoundingly non-cannon to GND, but we can at least look at the actresses that have player her in this show, especially since this version of Christine often looks a little more like she appears in GND. The best example is probably Sierra Boggess, who played Christine in LND after having played her in the Phantom of the Opera Las Vegas Spectacular, and went on to play the part in the 25th anniversary opposite Ramin Karimloo's Phantom. Her take on Christine looks like it she could have stepped right out of the pages of GND:
Of course there's also a LOT of movie versions of Christine out there. Even though Pika specifically said she wasn't really trying to do any particular movie version, it's at least fun to take a tour of them.
Mary Philbin from the original 1925 silent film featuring Lon Chaney Sr's career defining performance as the Phantom...
Susanna Foster from the 1943 Claude Rains movie (who is one of the few blonde Christines)...
Heather Sears from the extremely weird 1962 movie, where she was called Christine Charles...
A post-James Bond, pre-Dr. Quinn Jane Seymour from the 1983 TV movie...
Christina Collier from the 1984 movie (this is actually the first time the story was presented as a musical, and was apparently Andrew Lloyd Webber's original inspiration)...
Jill Schoelen played 'Christine Day' in a 1989 horror take on the Phantom that was meant to capitalize on the 80's trend of slasher films (It went so far as to cast Robert Englund, Freddie Kruger himself, as the Phantom)...
Teri Polo was another rare blonde Christine in the 1990 tv miniseries before she went on to star in the 'Meet the Fockers' franchise...
Asia Argento from the incredibly weird 1998 movie by famed horror maven, Dario Argento (which has almost nothing to do with the classic story and you probably shouldn't watch it unless you're already an Argento fan)...
and of course, the crossroads of the stage and film takes on Phantom of the Opera is the 2004 Joel Schumacher film. GND is spun out of AsheRhyder's Roommates comic, and it's very clear that this is the version of Phantom that AshRhyder was referencing. Because of this Pika also makes a few subtle references to this movie early on.
Emma has gone on to have huge success as an actress, and while she isn't an exact match to GND's Christine, she's likely the most accurate representation of her.
Emma has gone on to have huge success as an actress, and while she isn't an exact match to GND's Christine, she's likely the most accurate representation of her.