Director Greta Gerwig could have made almost any film she wanted after Barbie earned nearly $1.5 billion at the box office in 2023. Instead, she chose to direct Narnia: The Magician's Nephew for Netflix, an adaptation of C.S. Lewis' sixth novel in The Chronicles of Narnia series. Gerwig has said little publicly about the project, other than that she drew inspiration from 1960s-era David Bowie, though she stressed it would not be a musical.
Netflix has now released the trailer, set to "Stairway to Heaven," and it offers a distinctly psychedelic ride. The trailer suggests a visual approach far removed from the more conventional tone of earlier adaptations.
Lewis first published The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in 1950, and at the time he did not plan to write further Narnia stories. An acquaintance's question about how a London lamppost came to stand in the middle of Narnia's woodland, however, intrigued him enough to begin a prequel. Lewis found the book difficult to complete and wrote four other Narnia books before finishing The Magician's Nephew in 1955.
Several adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia have appeared in various media. The most recent was the early 2000s film franchise, which covered the first three novels. Those films showed diminishing returns, and by 2011 the film rights had expired. Plans to adapt The Silver Chair were initially discussed but never materialized.
Source: Ars Technica · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing