Greta Gerwig's Narnia Remake Must Avoid A Distracting Change The Disney Movies Made To The Books

This new iteration presents a unique opportunity to rectify these past missteps when dealing with Lewis’ hard-to-adapt The Chronicles of Narnia books. Gerwig is a promising creative for doing this, with her key positive decisions when dealing with a media franchise as massive as Barbie. She clearly does not shy away from reducing the importance of romance, and she could take the same approach to Lewis’ work.

Greta Gerwig's Narnia Remake Should Avoid Adding Romance Like The Disney Movies

Disney’s Romance Injection Distracted From An Otherwise Admirable Franchise

An essential preface to any criticism is that Disney’s Narnia franchise did a phenomenal job adapting C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books. Their positives cannot be minimized. The attention to detail was a product of the cinematic landscape – Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings series was scrupulous in its reading of Tolkien’s original text and its appendices, making thoughtful changes that balance the source material with structural needs. Disney wanting to create its own fantasy series with the same gravitas resulted in major strengths – including its locations in New Zealand, along with using Wētā Workshop, who also worked on LotR.

With this being said, one of the Narnia series’ harsh realities after the first movie was its Hollywoodizing, including injecting a romance subplot that was not in the original books. Some viewers consider this distracting – the romance between Susan and Caspian and the rivalry between Peter and Caspian is not in the source material. Arguably, its addition is to add more layers to Susan’s character – however, a romance subplot should not be necessary to do this. Greta Gerwig’s remake could find ways to build on the existing elements of the book without forcing romance.

The Pevensies Don't Need Romance Subplots For Netflix's Narnia Remake To Succeed

The Pevensie Characters Have Plenty Of Interesting Material To Explore

Netflix’s Narnia remake can benefit from exploring aspects of the Pevensies that are already on the page. Gerwig is an excellent screenwriter to do just that – she rejected the assumed romance between Barbie and Ken in Barbie, as well as challenging a false dichotomy between the worlds of Los Angeles and Barbieland. This makes her the perfect candidate to explore the whimsical and wondrous themes of Narnia despite it not releasing in theaters. A major strength of the books is their focus on faith in the Narnia dimension being real, and Gerwig has already shown interest in that theme.

This is not to say Gerwig’s remake should not take advantage of the interpersonal aspects of the Pevensies. For example, in the books, Peter and Edmund’s brotherly relationship is portrayed as flawed and develops throughout the series. The sibling dynamics being given more screentime would translate really well to adaptation. It could pay more attention to the differences between the children in how they relate to fantasy and faith, with Lucy being the youngest and the first to enter Narnia, and initially not being believed by her siblings. No romance is necessary to make the central characters compelling.

Greta Gerwig's Narnia Should Focus On What Makes The Books Work Instead Of Romance

Lewis’ Books Stand The Test Of Time Without Romance

Other than romance, another way Gerwig could improve on the flaws of Disney’s series is to focus less on the action-adventure aspect. The battle elements of the movies, while extremely well-done, are overplayed to compete with other products of its time. There is actually less interest in battle in the books. Instead, there should be more focus on whimsy and fantasy.

A positive aspect of the movies was including a blitz scene, which is a great piece of context that should be included in the remake. While the Narnia dimension is the main draw of the series, its juxtaposition with World War II – the confinement and boredom of evacuation, the limitations of rations – make the vast landscape and culinary delights of Narnia all the more impactful. The way food is written in Lewis’ books is also a great traditional fairytale element associated with both historical periods of famine and danger and timeless themes like temptation. This would translate well to screen.

In addition, Gerwig could draw on missing elements C.S. Lewis’ iconic series. For example, Lewis leaves Susan’s fate uncertain. In a letter to a reader, Lewis wrote:

“She is left alive in this world at the end, having been turned into a rather silly, conceited young woman. But there is plenty of time for her to mend, and perhaps she will get to Aslan’s country in the end – in her own way.”

via NarniaWeb

This leaves a lot of creative potential to further develop Susan’s character and what happens to Susan Pevensie in the Narnia series’ last battle. Gerwig could follow a compelling and under-explored story about Susan’s coming-of-age cynicism and perhaps her ultimate return to Narnia. This would be a powerful message that would distinguish Chronicles of Narnia from other adaptations.

Source: NarniaWeb