Narnia: The Magician's Nephew Trailer Reveals Netflix's Next Big Franchise
“Have you ever seen a world born?”
Greta Gerwig changed pop culture with Barbie, but before that, she was already hard at work on her next project: a take on C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix. For over two years now, fans have waited with bated breath to see how Netflix would show the story of the Pevensie siblings. But Gerwig chose not to adapt the books in publication order, like the previous adaptations. Instead, the Netflix series will begin with an adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew, the prequel book.
Now, we have our first glimpse at this unique take, and its full of as much life and color as you’d expect — including our first look at Jadis the White Witch and even Aslan. Check out the trailer below.
Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew follows Digory Kirke (David McKenna) and his friend Polly (Beatrice Campbell) as they look into Digory’s mysterious Uncle Andrew (Daniel Craig) and discover an entirely new world: the newly-formed realm of Narnia. But when Digory accidentally awakens Jadis (Samara Weaving), she ventures out into the real world and wreaks havoc.
Here’s the official logline for The Magician’s Nephew, per Netflix:
Academy Award–nominated filmmaker Greta Gerwig brings C. S. Lewis’s beloved story The Magician’s Nephew to the screen for the first time in a sweeping adventure that invites dreamers of all ages to experience the creation of Narnia.
Gerwig shifted the entire timeline of the Narnia series up a few decades, so The Magician’s Nephew is set in the 1950s instead of the turn of the century, meaning the planned future movies, beginning with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, will probably be set somewhere in the ‘70s or ‘80s.
Samara Weaving’s Jadis ventures out into London in Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew.
This trailer may not be the most faithful adaptation outside of Narnia, but its glittery, cosmic take on Narnia itself nails the tone intended by the books themselves. Adding to this is the usage of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” a song that communicates both a moment in time as well as a journey from one world to another. According to a Q&A that Inverse attended, Gerwig approached Jimmy Page and Robert Plant about using the song, and learned that they are apparently big C.S. Lewis fans themselves.
Starting with the prequel book may be controversial, but it’s not entirely unprecedented. Gerwig cites a letter Lewis wrote to a young American fan named Laurence Krieg about what order the books should be read in: he said chronological, while his mother said publication order. Lewis responded saying that because the order of the books wasn’t mapped out in advance, it doesn’t really matter which order they are read.
But is that true, or was it just Lewis trying to placate a young fan? This movie may be the ultimate test. Gerwig may have nailed the tone of Narnia, but can this saga really start from the prequel? We’ll find out for ourselves next year.
