Netflix Releases Official First Trailer for Greta Gerwig's Narnia Movie

Greta Gerwig's Barbie follow-up revealed in spectacular fashion

Netflix has released the first trailer for Narnia: The Magician's Nephew, Barbie and Little Women director Greta Gerwig's adaptation of C.S. Lewis' novel, giving fantasy fans their first look at next year's highly anticipated film. The movie — set 1,000 years before Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — serves as a prequel to the larger Chronicles of Narnia story arc.

In fact, viewers get a look at the very creation of Lewis' universe (and the book series' famous wardrobe) in the first spectacular trailer for Narnia: The Magician's Nephew.

'Have you ever seen a world born?'

Netflix's first trailer for its Narnia movie shows protagonists Digory Kirke (David McKenna) and Polly Plummer (Beatrice Campbell) experiencing worlds beyond their own, courtesy of the "magician" Andrew Ketterley (Daniel Craig) — "infinity worlds" filled with light and dark magic. The trailer certainly lives up to the magical, musical aesthetic that Gerwig said she was going for.

"I wanted a rock opera. I wanted it to be big and transporting," Gerwig told Empire earlier this year. “Narnia is literally a world made out of music. It is a world sung to life by Aslan, and rock ’n’ roll to me felt like a world made out of music.” (To wit, Narnia: The Magician's Nephew's first trailer is set to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven.")

Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew will serve as the first live-action film adaptation of Lewis' book. Other installments in the seven-book Narnia series have been adapted multiple times, particularly The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Live-action adaptations of Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader have also been released. The Magician’s Nephew was previously adapted for the theater, radio, and in comic form. Netflix acquired the rights to C.S. Lewis' works in 2018.

Adapting Narnia is a lifelong dream for Gerwig

"I was a child when I first read The Magician’s Nephew, and I fell in love with the gorgeously improbable but completely brilliant concept of a cosmic lion singing the world of Narnia to life," Gerwig said of the movie in a statement. "I didn’t know that I would grow up to make films, but a universe built out of music is an idea that always lived in my heart. It is the honor of a lifetime to be asked to imagine it into being. Because of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, I believed in magic and hidden worlds and adventure. I believed that anywhere could be enchanted and that anyone could be swept up into an epic. That wonder and awe was available to everyone, even ordinary people like me."

Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew stars Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds, Denise Gough, Susan Wokoma, and Meryl Streep, as well as newcomers David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell.

The film was previously expected to arrive in 2026, but Netflix delayed its release back in May. Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew will be debut in IMAX globally in movie theaters on Feb. 12, 2027, and will stream on Netflix on April 2, 2027. Early showings in IMAX will begin on Feb. 10, 2027.