Netflix Is Restarting An Epic Fantasy Franchise With A Forgotten Prequel
Put a (green) ring on it.
Given the success of The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series in the 2000s, it seemed like a movie adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia would be a slam-dunk. But when Disney attempted to launch a franchise with 2005’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the studio only managed to adapt three of the seven books before the momentum sputtered to a halt.
Now, two decades later, the beloved children’s books are getting a new lease on life thanks to a popular director... and she’s working with Netflix on a new strategy that might dodge around the mistakes of Disney’s failed attempt.
Greta Gerwig is shepherding Netflix’s Chronicles of Narnia adaptation.
Netflix’s attempt to adapt the Narnia books begins with Greta Gerwig, who will write and direct at least two movies. The first is currently slated for a theatrical release — a rarity for Netflix movies — on November 26, 2026, before premiering on the streamer a week later.
For a while, that was all we knew, but a casting call acquired by NarniaWeb has revealed that the film is looking for a boy and a girl, both aged 10 or 11. This essentially confirms a long-standing theory: Gerwig’s movies won’t adapt the books in publishing order, but will instead tell the story chronologically, beginning with The Magician’s Nephew.
The Magician’s Nephew follows Digory Clarke and his neighbor Polly Plummer — both about 10 or 11 years old — as they discover Digory’s uncle has been dabbling with magic. They end up becoming key figures in Narnia’s history, and the book also serves as both a prequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and a creation story for Narnia itself, explaining the origins of everything from the lamppost to the title wardrobe.
Netflix could set apart from Disney’s attempt by following the modern reading order.
There has long been debate over the “correct” order to read the Narnia books. Nowadays, if you buy a box set of them, The Magician’s Nephew is numbered as the first in the series, a re-ordering based on a letter to a young American fan published in Lewis’ Letters to Children collection. In it, Lewis says that because he didn’t originally intend to write more Narnia books when he started, he didn’t plan on jumping around in the timeline, making a chronological reading order just as valid as any other.
Gerwig agrees, if this casting call is to be believed. But there may be more to this decision than just authorial intent: by starting with the relatively obscure Magician’s Nephew, the Netflix adaptations can step out of the shadow of the Disney movies and start from a completely different point on the timeline. Hopefully, this will help the ambitious project do what the previous series couldn’t and give the books the full adaptation they deserve.
