With any luck, that’s all about to change. Greta Gerwig, hot off the billion-dollar success of Barbie, has lined up a Narnia reboot as her next project. Gerwig already adapted one of her favorite books for the screen with 2019’s Little Women, and with her Narnia adaptation, she’s doing it again. Gerwig is writing and directing the movie for Netflix, and she’s managed to negotiate a proper release in IMAX cinemas. It’ll be the first ever wide theatrical release for a Netflix original film. They wouldn’t even give that deal to David Fincher or Rian Johnson or Guillermo del Toro, but they’ve conceded to their dreaded theatrical counterparts for Gerwig.
While it’s subject to further delays, Gerwig’s next movie — Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew — is set to be released in theaters on February 12, 2027, before streaming on Netflix around the world on April 2. If Gerwig can work her Barbie magic, it could finally put Narnia back on the map.
Narnia Is Still One Of Fantasy's Greatest Franchises
Disney first attempted to bring C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia series to the big screen with a big-budget adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in 2005. That movie was a bona fide blockbuster, raking in three-quarters of $1 billion at the worldwide box office, so Disney quickly followed it up with a sequel, Prince Caspian, in 2008. While it was financially successful, Prince Caspian barely made half of what its predecessor did. 20th Century Fox took over for the 2010 threequel, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but that similarly underperformed, and a planned adaptation of The Silver Chair was ultimately scrapped.
Compared to the runaway success of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter movies, which actually got to tell their story in full, The Chronicles of Narnia’s film franchise might seem like a miserable failure. And that’s a shame, because Lewis’ books are just as important to the fantasy genre as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth books or the collected works of the transphobe who shall not be named.
The Chronicles of Narnia is the quintessential portal fantasy story. The joy of portal fantasy is its literal escapism; the characters can literally escape from their dreary, mundane lives to lead a much more exciting existence in a sprawling fantasy world. The first movie was the only one that really captured that, so, hopefully, Gerwig can bring it back.
What Is The Magician's Nephew?
First published in 1955, The Magician’s Nephew was the sixth Narnia book to be released, but it’s the first chronologically. Modern editions publishing the Narnia series as a set in order will put The Magician’s Nephew first. The Magician’s Nephew serves as a prequel filling in the origin story of Narnia itself. In the middle section of the book, we see how Aslan the lion created the land of Narnia, centered around a lamppost that visiting Londoners accidentally brought through in 1900. These early days of Narnia’s history take place 1,000 years before the events of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
The framing narrative follows two children in England as they get drawn into “the wood between the worlds.” It also digs into the White Witch’s backstory — she was once Jadis, the last Queen of Charn, and she’ll be played by Emma Mackey in the movie — and it even becomes a multiverse story when we find that our world and Narnia are just two of many worlds in a vast interdimensional canvas. Suffice to say, there’s a lot going on in The Magician’s Nephew, and it’s completely removed from the events of the previous movies.
The Magician's Nephew Is Releasing Close To Other Fantasy Heavyweights
Gerwig’s Narnia reboot is arriving on the heels of a bunch of other major fantasy franchises making a comeback. The Lord of the Rings is coming back to the small screen with The Rings of Power season 3 on Prime Video, and back to the big screen with Andy Serkis’ dubious Hunt for Gollum movie. Percy Jackson and the Olympians is coming back for its third season — based on the third book in Rick Riordan’s series, The Titan’s Curse — on Hulu.
Plus, this holiday season, the big dog is coming back to our screens. Over Christmas, HBO will premiere its long-awaited TV adaptation of Harry Potter. The first season will adapt the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and even if it’s just propped up by hate-watchers, it’s guaranteed to be the biggest fantasy hit of the year (bigger than Rings of Power, bigger than House of the Dragon).
Narnia is returning amid a wave of huge fantasy properties coming back to our screens. Gerwig’s Narnia reboot is more like Hulu’s Percy Jackson reboot than HBO’s Harry Potter reboot, because Percy Jackson, like Narnia, never got the adaptation it deserved on the big screen, whereas Harry Potter has already had the best possible adaptation.
Don't Expect Something Similar To The 2000s Narnia Movies
If you were a fan of those 2000s Narnia movies, don’t expect Gerwig’s reboot to be like them. The Magician’s Nephew doesn’t have many of the same characters as those three films, and it definitely won’t have any of the same actors. Gerwig has assembled a stacked cast, including but not limited to Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds, Daniel Craig, Andor’s Denise Gough, and Gerwig’s Aunt March, the incomparable Meryl Streep.
Netflix is starting fresh with a total reboot. They might get around to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the other books that were previously adapted, but it’ll be a completely fresh reimagining. Whether Gerwig will be involved in the sequels remains to be seen; her initial deal with Netflix included two movies, but The Magician’s Nephew is the only one with any firm details confirmed. Whatever form it takes, Gerwig’s Narnia reboot will be very different from what we’ve seen before.
Release Date
February 12, 2027
Producers
Mark Gordon, Amy Pascal, Rachel O'Connor
Cast
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Carey Mulligan
Mabel Kirke
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David McKenna
Digory Kirke
Via MovieStillsDB
English (US) ·