Many of you know I'm a massive C.S. Lewis fan. I grew up reading "The Chronicles of Narnia," and I probably know more about that world's lore than anyone in any given room. I spent my adult years reading Lewis's other works, fiction and non-fiction... and also "Narnia." The complete box set is currently sitting on my 3-year-old's shelf, waiting for him to become just old enough to appreciate my reading it to him before bed, just like my mom did for me.
I tell you this because when I heard that Netflix bought the rights to it and that Greta Gerwig ("Barbie Movie") would be directing, I wasn't happy. When they told me they were making changes, I was unsurprised but still furious. When I was told they might be casting Meryl Streep as Aslan, I said I'd actively do whatever I could to make sure this series fails.
Read: Hollywood Is Going to Make Itself Irrelevant - and I Hope Narnia Is the Straw That Breaks Its Back
Since then, Amazon has thoroughly abused J.R.R. Tolkien's work, and Lord of the Rings fans have not been forgiving. "The Rings of Power" is an utter disaster, and it's pretty clear Amazon isn't getting its money back on its $1 billion investment.
Read: JRR Tolkien Is Owning Race Baiters From Beyond the Grave
Which brings me to the update about the Netflix "Narnia" adaptation. I have good news, and I have bad news.
According to ScreenCrush, it's being delayed:
Gerwig’s Narnia movie was previously set to open in limited release on Thanksgiving of 2026 with a streaming release to follow shortly after that. Instead, Netflix is pushing the film back to early 2027
The bad news is that it's getting a wide theatrical release:
That decision surely has something to do with the fact that Gerwig’s last movie, 2023’s Barbie, earned $1.4 billion in theaters. It probably doesn’t hurt that Narnia has a proven track record as a theatrical franchise. Walden Media produced three big-budget Narnia movies in the 2000s. The first two — The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian — were released by Disney. The third, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, was distributed by Fox.
The best news would have been that it has been canceled altogether, but we're not that lucky.
My hope — and I'm not trusting to hope — is that Netflix watched Amazon drop their billion-dollar Tolkien-shaped ball and are pulling back on their reimagining of Lewis's epic. If anything, the backlash against "The Lord of the Rings" showed them the power of a displeased audience, and that making a fantasy show "for everyone" is not going to get more people to watch.
If they make it clear that Streep is not playing Aslan, that will go a long way to reassuring some, and I can't help but think that this is part of the reevaluation.
But I doubt it.
The gap between the original release date and the "early 2027" date isn't large. It's surely enough time to work out logistics for theatrical releases, but I'm not sure it's enough time to rewrite, reshoot, and reedit.
Ultimately, Gerwig's "Narnia" is going to have to dodge a lot of potholes. People are still sore over "The Rings of Power." They're not trusting of Netflix as it is, so one slip-up from Gerwig could be a disaster that ruins any plans for the franchise they were planning to make out of "Narnia." I'd like to tell you that this would make Netflix be far more careful with the property, but this is Netflix we're talking about. Their specialty is ruining special things.
Just as "Stranger Things."
The best thing for this adaptation is respect. Gerwig says she does respect "Narnia," but she also said this would be a "rock-n'-roll" version and "not your grandmother's 'Narnia,'" which is enough to make me want to set fire to it alone.
"Narnia" doesn't need a modernized interpretation. Very few stories do. The point of some of these tales isn't to change with the times; it's to be a story that solidifies our principles and helps guide us as a culture. The idea nowadays seems to be that these guideposts and teachers need to be destroyed to make room for something far less substantial but way easier to adopt.
Whatever Gerwig makes, it very likely won't be "Narnia." It'll be another bout of modern propaganda wearing the mask of something far greater, and created by greater people.
