The Lion, Lady Bird, and the Streaming Service

Greta Gerwig has already made Barbieland, historical Massachusetts, and 2001 Sacramento feel real. All that’s left is Narnia. Gerwig is current filming her adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, which she had already started writing a draft of before even beginning filming Barbie. The project was first revealed in July 2023, confirming Gerwig would make at least two movies in the series. Slowly but surely, details about the new franchise are hitting the page, including the extremely famous actors being cast. Plus, Gerwig has convinced Netflix to show the film on Imax screens. It’s always good to have a resurrected lion Jesus — especially one played by Meryl Streep — on your side. Below, the latest cast and production updates.

Mark Ronson, the Barbie soundtrack ringleader, will score the upcoming Narnia film, Variety confirmed on September 23. Notably, the film stars his fellow former Gerwig collaborator and mother-in-law, Meryl Streep. We knew it meant something when they presented together at the Grammys. Ronson’s involvement, as he’s a pop-music producer used to working with stars like Bruno Mars, Amy Winehouse, and Miley Cyrus, implies that the film might be a little less stately than previous Narnia adaptations. Does this mean we get to hear some pop stars on this soundtrack like we did for Barbie? Charli XCX might not have ended up in the role of the White Witch, despite initial rumors, but that doesn’t mean she can’t drop a banger about snow. In our wildest dreams, the whole score is a collaboration between Ronson and his “True Blue” collaborator Angel Olsen. Burn your Turkish delight for no witness.

Gerwig may be chronicling Narnia, but there’s a lot of lore in that world, and two movies wouldn’t come close to covering the whole series. Gerwig is tackling The Magician’s Nephew, the sixth book to be released in the series. That book covers the origins of the iconic White Witch and Aslan’s battle that rages on in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, focusing on two young children, Digory and Polly, who are sent to Narnia by their uncle Andrew. There is much debate in the Narnia community about what book to read first, between The Magician’s Nephew and TLTWTW, because the original series’ release pattern eschewed chronological order. Lewis first put out TLTWTW in 1950, continued the series for three chronological installments in 1951 to 1953, put out two separate prequels, The Horse and His Boy (1954) and The Magician’s Nephew (1955), and then ended the series with The Last Battle in 1956. It looks like Gerwig has chosen a side.

The Disney- and Fox-released film series in the 2000s only made three movies, never getting to the planned adaptation of the fourth-released book, The Silver Chair, despite a 2014 fan contest to name the film’s antagonist. Those films avoided the prequels altogether, as did the 1988–90 BBC series. In November 2023, Scott Stuber, the then–film chief of Netflix, told Variety that, while The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the “preeminent” book, Gerwig was working on how to “break the whole arc of all of [the series].”

Gerwig told Time that she was drawn to the “paradox of the worlds that Lewis created,” through the combination of mythologies like Greek fauns, Father Christmas, and the British Empire. Ted Sarandos, meanwhile, told the magazine that Gerwig’s version of the story will be “bigger and bolder” than what audiences imagine. Lewis’s version of the story is deeply associated with Christianity to the point where “Talking Narnia to Your Neighbors” is a real 2005 headline from the Evangelizing website Today’s Christian Woman. In terms of adaptation, Stuber confirmed to Variety in his November interview that Gerwig’s version is “rooted in faith.” Previous examples of Gerwig’s work being informed by Christianity include Lady Bird eating non-blessed communion wafers, Lady Bird getting suspended for sassing a pro-life activist, and Barbie killing God.

Daniel Craig will be playing Andrew, that dastardly fellow. He’ll be joined by Carrie Mulligan as Digory’s sick mother. At least one Barbie is joining the cast, because the White Witch will be played by Barbie and Sex Education star Emma Mackey. According to the The Hollywood Reporter, she beat out Margaret Qualley and multiple other actresses who were interested in the role (Deadline previously reported that Charli XCX could potentially trade her brat green to play the White Witch.) Meanwhile, Meryl Streep will be playing Aslan. Yes, the lion. Notably, there is no official casting for the purported leads of the film, Digory and Polly.

Principal photography began on the film on August 11, per Far Out. Early videos coming out from set look like they are set in the mid-1950s, rather than the original Victorian era.

Gerwig’s first movie is set to hit Imax screens on Thanksgiving 2026 after a big win in negotiations with Netflix. That means it won’t be available on streaming until Christmas, but some things just feel right.