(Image credit: Netflix, Disney)
Netflix has unveiled the first wave of stills for "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig's new reboot of "The Chronicles of Narnia," beginning with "The Magician's Nephew." The reveal, featured on the cover of the renowned British film magazine *Empire*, showcases the designs for two core characters: the lion Aslan and the villainous White Witch (below).
In an exclusive interview with *Empire*, Gerwig shared her vision for the reboot: "My idea for 'Narnia' was the same as my idea for 'Barbie.' I wanted a rock opera. I wanted it to be big and transporting." While the new version is not a musical, Gerwig hopes it will possess a similar spirit.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Gerwig pointed to British rock of the '60s and '70s as a massive source of inspiration for her take on the material. "David Bowie saved my life. Paul McCartney saved my life. David Gilmour saved my life. Pete Townshend saved my life. And Jimmy Page, Robert Plant too... When I heard their music, I had this deep sense of [thinking], 'You're gonna be okay,'" she explained. "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."
(Image credit: Empire)
This time, "The Magician's Nephew" shifts the novel's early 20th-century setting forward to post-war Britain in the 1950s. Gerwig believes that the children who grew up in the bleak and dreary '50s ultimately became the vibrant and endlessly imaginative rock heroes of the '70s who lit up her world. "They had this relationship to pain and loss and something as unpromising as a bomb site, and they made a castle. They made a universe. They made something you could live inside of," she said. "I don't know how you went from David Jones to David Bowie unless you went to Narnia and you saw something."
The David Bowie influence also extends to Aslan, voiced by Meryl Streep. This version of Aslan now has heterochromia and a prominent red stripe on his face, a look directly inspired by Bowie's iconic makeup.
(Image credit: Amazon)
In addition to Streep, the cast includes David McKenna, Beatrice Campbell, Ciarán Hinds, Carey Mulligan, Susan Wokoma, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, and Denise Gough, along with Daniel Craig as Uncle Andrew and Emma Mackey as the White Witch.
"The Magician's Nephew" is scheduled for a theatrical release on February 12, 2027, followed by its Netflix debut on April 2, 2027. IMAX previews will begin two days earlier on February 10, 2027.
via： Empire