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Netflix Narnia Update

Netflix Narnia Update

Last updated on: October 21, 2026 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

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Netflix Narnia Update 2026-10-18T11:01:21-04:00 Gene Veith

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We blogged about the controversy over the upcoming Netflix rendition of The Magician’s Nephew using a female voice, that of Meryl Streep, for Aslan, the lion who is C. S. Lewis’s Christ figure.

Some more interesting tidbits about the movie have come out: The official trailer has been released. Director Greta Gerwig did an interview about Narna and her faith. And Netflix insiders who have seen the film are ordering reshoots and new editing because the film is “awful.”

The Trailer

I’ve got to say, it looks pretty good. Netflix has gone all out with the special effect. The contrast between the grey, modern-day London (though the book was set in early-20th century London, which was probably even greyer) and the visually spectacular Narnia seems effective. (As in the classic Wizard of Oz with its black-and-white Kansas and its Technicolor Oz.)

The music to the trailer, which will reportedly also figure prominently in the movie, is Led Zeppelin’s 1971 iconic rock song Stairway to Heaven. I guess the lyrics, about the contrast between a woman’s materialism and the nature-grounded spirituality of the Piper, can be construed as tying in to Narnia (as long as you don’t play them backwards). In the interview we’ll discuss next, we are told

Even the music used in the new trailer — Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” — references Narnia’s message of faith, Gerwig said. The song has never previously been licensed for film, but Gerwig met with the song’s writers, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, to explain how the song and “Narnia” share a similar theme: a spiritual journey with false roads and distractions.

“They saw the heart of the story in the film and they, too, love C.S. Lewis, and they have a reverence for his work,” Gerwig said. “I was so moved that they allowed me to use the song.”

So Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are C. S. Lewis fans? Who knew? Who would have guessed?

The question remains, does heavy metal rock fit the Narnian aesthetic? Can The Magician’s Nephew work as, in Gerwig’s words, a “rock opera“?

NOTE: Alicia Bittle noticed a little detail in the trailer that goes by so quickly, I didn’t notice. She writes, referring to the future White Witch Jadis: “She blows up The Eagle and Child, the famous pub known for hosting Lewis and Tolkien as they sat for hours workshopping their stories together, smashing the very patriarchy she was born from.” (That happens 1:48 into the trailer.) That may be emblematic of the whole project.

The Interview

The premier of the trailer was accompanied by an interview with Gerwig conducted by former late-show host and liberal Catholic Stephen Colbert. As reported by Deseret News editor Ariel Harmer, the conversation brought up a number of issues about faith.

Gerwig talks about her Unitarian upbringing, her Catholic schooling, and how she had attended Protestant services. “Faith has been a thread through all of my work,” Gerwig told Colbert. “For me, film and faith have always gone hand in hand.”

She identifies, as is said today, as a C. S. Lewis fan:

Gerwig also shared her love for Lewis’ work and his own story. She grew up an avid reader of the “Narnia” series and realized how much of Lewis’ own life shaped the story when she read his memoir. For instance, Lewis’ mother died from cancer when he was young; the mother of Digory Kirke, the protagonist of “The Magician’s Nephew,” is also seriously ill.

While writing the script, Gerwig read all of Lewis’ work and visited Oxford and Cambridge, where the author taught, “to align myself with where Lewis’ soul was,” she said.

She read all of Lewis’s work! Let’s hope that his apologetics writings had an impact on her and that Lewis’s defense and explanation of Christianity, which animates both his non-fiction and his fiction, shows up in her movie.

Harmer discusses the controversy over Aslan’s female voice, an issue that Gerwig doesn’t directly address in the interview. Harmer quotes both a Christian critic of that decision, along the lines of our recent blog post, and also quotes a Christian defender of Gerwig’s decision:

Catholic writer Mary Pezzulo said she thought the movie looked “awful” but was concerned by the uproar over Streep’s casting. If Christians can accept Jesus being portrayed as a lion, she asked, why the furor at a woman’s voice?

“You can turn Jesus into an animal, and it doesn’t take away from his dignity,” she told Religion News Service. “But you think it’s offensive to turn (Jesus) into a woman?

The issue, of course, is not His “dignity.” The Bible itself depicts Jesus figuratively as a lion, as well as a lamb (see, for example, Revelation 5:5-10, which, remarkably, depicts Him as a lion and a lamb at the same time!). The issue is the feminist assault on Christian orthodoxy.

The Test-Screening

Beyond the complaints about theology and faithfulness to the novel, The Magician’s Nephew according to Gerwig is facing another kind of criticism that may be even more devastating.

Jordan Ruimy reports on the results of test-screenings at Netflix in a story for the movie news site World of Reel entitled ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’ Faces Trouble at Netflix as Insiders Call Greta Gerwig’s Epic “Awful”.

The InSneider is now further reporting on friction between Netflix film chief Dan Lin and Greta Gerwig over ‘Narnia,’ the fantasy epic that’s reportedly carrying a $280M budget, with some saying it’s much higher than that.

One source tells Sneider the tension is very real, and that people at Netflix think the movie is “awful,” calling it “a genuine problem.” A second source, who attended a test screening over the summer, compared it to Ava DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” the 2018 Disney adaptation that reportedly lost the studio close to $100M. According to that source, the mood in the room was deflated once the lights came up.

That screening reportedly led Netflix to order reshoots. The same source flagged a structural issue that may still be fixed in post: the characters apparently don’t reach Narnia until the third act. For a movie called ‘Narnia,’ that’s a curious choice.

The story also tells of new editors being brought in to craft the final product. The movie will be in theaters February 12, 2007, where it will run for 49 days before settling in on the Netflix streaming service. So there isn’t much time.

These Hollywood types care little about issues of theology or literary fidelity, and, judging from work they approve of, their aesthetic standards are not terribly high. So when they say a movie is “awful,” it probably is, for a variety of reasons. And yet, such problems are not new in the film world, and post-production tinkering can indeed turn a cinematic mess into an effective movie.

The Invalid Criticisms

I have my doubts about this film, though I’ll give it a chance. Some of the criticisms, though, miss the point.

Consider this concern as stated above from Netflix execs: “The same source flagged a structural issue that may still be fixed in post: the characters apparently don’t reach Narnia until the third act. For a movie called ‘Narnia,’ that’s a curious choice.”

No, that’s not a “curious choice.” This would be a case in which Gerwig is being faithful to the novel. The Magician’s Nephew provides the backstory of Narnia, giving the origin of the wardrobe and the lamppost, showing who the mysterious professor is who owns the house the children visit, where the White Witch came from, etc., etc. Much of the novel sets all of that up. Narnia isn’t even created until well into the story.

If Netflix wants more Narnia and plans to “fix” this “structural issue” in post-production by bringing in Narnia earlier, they will not only confuse the plot but make the movie even more unfaithful to the book that it probably already is.

One complaint I’ve heard from true fans is the order of the Netflix films. The company is planning to make movies of all seven of the Chronicles of Narnia novels. So why is it starting with The Magician’s Nephew, which was the next to the last book that Lewis wrote for the series? Why didn’t Netflix start with the first Narnia book that Lewis wrote, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?

I completely agree that the books should be read in the order that they were written:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
2. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (1951)
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
4. The Silver Chair (1953)
5. The Horse and His Boy (1954)
6. The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
7. The Last Battle (1956)

The old box sets numbered the series in that order. When HarperCollins took over publication of the Narnia books, they were re-numbered according to their chronological order of the events they depicted in the “Narnia universe.” The book that described that world’s creation, The Magician’s Nephew, thus came first, followed by the unfolding Narnia history in this order:

1. The Magician’s Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

Why change the order? Well, C. S. Lewis himself recommended it. As a very useful post on the subject at NarniaWeb explains it, he said so in a letter to an 11 year old boy.

But I disagree with the great man. Literary scholar that I am, I can say that for the best understanding of authors, you should read their the works in the order in which they were written. That way you can see the authors’ initial ideas and then see how those ideas–along with recurring characters, literary devices, and themes–developed over time. Of course, Lewis always hated it when critics poked around in his creative process, so I can see why he might want to thwart that.

Never mind that much of The Magician’s Nephew doesn’t make sense unless you already know something about the wardrobe, the lamppost, the professor, and the White Witch. Furthermore, I maintain that Aslan sacrificing himself for Edmund is the true foundational event for the Narnia Chronicles, the set up for all the others and the full revelation of who Aslan is.

But, though I much prefer and recommend that the books be read in the order of their composition, the chronological order has a certain canonical status as being in accord with the author’s intention. So we can’t really criticize Netflix for starting with The Magician’s Nephew, as much as we might legitimatley want to.

HT: Jackie Veith

Illustration: Post of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew by https://x.com/PopBase/status/2109706374099665182, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84264338

Magician's Nephew movie

Netflix Narnia movies

The Chronicles of Narnia

the order of the Narnia books

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