The Silver Chair Director Said the B Word | Talking Beasts

In an exciting interaction between the director and fanbase, Joe Johnston answered some questions and created many more. What did he mean by a new Narnia “trilogy” coming soon? How do we feel about Will Poulter officially not returning? And what about the b-word NarniaWebbers fear? Listen to Glumpuddle, Twigs, and Fantasia Kitty break it all down.

The Silver Chair Reading Group is still going! We will continue to discuss your posts in future episodes.

Thanks to MinotaurforAslan for editing this episode. Follow his YouTube channels: aMinotaursJourney | aSongScout

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Next Episode: Monday, June 12

24 Responses

  1. Arias says:

    Without Will Poulter? Does it mean that Eustace will be played by another child? I would have preferred to see Will, though he is older. Pfff this will be a box office failure.

  2. Swanwhite says:

    The picture and title made me think Joe had brought of Ben Barnes for some reason 😛 but then I remembered what he'd said about a battle.

  3. Sirius317 says:

    Big hopes that it's all about producing the prequels at last. Thus TLB comes after the "non-Pevensie' trilogy, which totally makes sense, regarding the publication order and Gresham's intent to film all the stories as separate entries to the series.

  4. narnia fan 7 says:

    I haven't thought about "Global Warming" in years. Hopefully we won't have to worry about anything like that with Silve Chair. (fingers crossed)

    Honesty I don't think all that much of Joe's 'trilogy' comment. It's definitely possible that he meant they might add some kind of over-arcing three act thing or that they may skip a book, though I think the former is unlikely. Either way until or unless we hear more about this I'm not gonna worry about it.

  5. Rick kuhn says:

    I still like the idea of a blockbuster. It doesmnt have to be all marvel comics

  6. Anfinwen says:

    I don't think we really have to worry about a big battle. My guess is that Mr. Johnston equates the climax that involves fighting the witch and facing an army of gnomes with a battle. I wouldn't be surprised if the tensions between the gnomes and the travelers is much more built up than in the book. They might really almost come to blows before someone figures out that they are on the same side, but I don't think the gnomes will actually be attacking Cair Paravel.
    Here are my thoughts on the whole "finding yourself" theme: As a Christian I believe finding ourselves involves seeing ourselves as God sees us and recognizing who we are in Him. We sometimes feel worthless and need a reminder that we are on the winning team, that we are children of God. I think Jill's journey should be much the same. She only sees herself the way the bullies see her, weak and helpless. Now Aslan is actually trusting her to help in a very important mission and she begins to see that she has abilities and value that she never recognized before. She sees what she can become if she trusts him. This is how I hope that theme plays out in the movie.
    Once again, an excellent podcast!

  7. I guess i must've been mispronouncing it all this time. My main takeaway: I found the pronunciation of "Calormenes" jarring.

  8. Hwinning says:

    SPECULATION:
    Lady of the Green Kirtle's green fire influences Jill and Eustace to fight each other in hopes of being her left hand man instead of making them sleepy! It will be an internal battle within the minds of the main characters AND an actual fight as they try to kill each other and Puddleglum tries to tear them apart. This can also be where Puddleglum makes his speech. And let's make the green mist float around them because why not. (No don't, I was just kidding about that last bit).

  9. Larry W. says:

    I am afraid that a trilogy based on "The Silver Chair" might have a lot of filler material not in the book. I wish they would devote only one movie to each Narnia book. It's one book (not three) but the story is not very long compared to some other works of fantasy. Therefore, to adhere to the original books it's much better to have one adaptation and a close plot to C. S. Lewis' ideas.

  10. FilmReel says:

    I think its ok to put a big battle at the end of The Last Battle because the title is The Last Battle.

  11. Fireberry says:

    "The Last Battle" isn't even all that big a battle, is it? It's a skirmish. And there's a whole other non-violent "story act" after that.

  12. Fireberry says:

    Possible trilogy thought: the offstage described "England" action might be a very interesting plotline in an expanded "Last Battle" movie(s). (I still can't believe that Prof Kirke sent Peter & Edmund to sneak into Uncle Andrew's old garden in London to dig up those forbidden rings!!!!)

  13. Anhun says:

    No way Caspian is even in contention for darkest book. Most boring book, perhaps, but not darkest. I always see Caspian as having a similar sense of wonder and excitement at meeting the Narnians as Lucy has in discovering Narnia.

  14. Eysee says:

    Thanks so much for these podcasts! I haven't known they existed until recently :/ I feel positive about most of Mr. Johnston's answers

  15. Moonlit_Centaur says:

    In the next episode can you talk about The Magician’s Nephew and Aslan singing Narnia into existence. Also about The Last Battle and your opinion on all of Narnia taking only a few Earth years.

  16. Gail says:

    Sad thought that will not playing eustace he was amazing as David twaties eustace in the BBC production of narnia back in the late 80s and early nineties. I wonder who they will get to play jill pole and puddleglum I loved camilla power and Tom Baker interpretation in the early 90s. I loved the other narnia movies but I still.think the BBC production was my favourite childhood memory thoughts

  17. twinimage says:

    I had a thought, if they're not going with the previous movies' continuity… Could this mean that the last two movies never happened the way they did!? 😀 No Susan/Capsian romance in Prince Caspian?! No green mist in Dawn Treader!?

  18. Anfinwen says:

    Ah! This is the beauty of a reboot!

  19. Pete says:

    Just a thought about the "trilogy" comment – they could have in mind 'The Silver Chair', 'The Horse & His Boy' & 'The Magician's Nephew', as the trilogy in that there is a reference to HHB in SC, and then in HHB there's a reference MN. It would make sense to make all these movies over a similar time as well because they don't have many of the same characters overlapping – and they could potentially use snippets from each in the relevant sections of the stories.

    One other thing – I was thinking of the little skirmish with the bullies at Experiment house as the "battle" that Joe may have been referring to… after all, I didn't see any reference to any "epic battles" that he made, just that there was "a battle".

  20. Queen Lucy says:

    Can you please get rid of the email box when posting comments? I admit I always put in a fake email and it seems pointless.

  21. Rick kuhn says:

    I think they need to get the psychology right. How does Jill go from sign to ign?what is motivating her? What is the psychology outside the giants' castle in the storm for instance?

  22. Eric Geddes says:

    I'm really scared that they will either not do the Last Battle at all or try to make it to commercial. I'm sorry but The Last Battle is not commercial. If you try to make it super accessible to a general audience most of the points Lewis was trying to make about faith vs atheism and how much most people are afraid and others have lost faith and don't get it back and Emeth coming to Aslan even though he's not Narnian. All those points could be just butchered. Can anyone think of a way they could change some things and have it still be respectful?

  23. HPofNARNIA says:

    I'm excited and not excited at the same time. Hopefully we'll get more information about The whole Trilogy thing, and people r still saying it's a 'Reboot'. Joe didn't say that word, and if it's a total reboot, u don't start with SC because that doesn't make sense. Also, David Magee Tweeted that the plan is to continue the remaining books into film. Joe Johnston said he is going to do reference from the first three films, So this will still be the same continuity, it will be a sequel to VDT, but with a whole new cast.
    I am a little disappointed that non of the original actors r not coming back.
    I know film franchises get changes as they kept going, like with Harry Potter, the last six movies got darker and darker, they kept changing Hogwarts a little bit, they gave a few characters new looks and recast a few characters, but they still take place in the same universe.
    I'll be okay for Cair Paravel looking different because it was destroyed, BBC did that too.
    I'm also open to the idea of them giving the Narnia logo a different color, because they did that with the Harry Potter logo, because after all, I believe Harpercollins owns it because that logo is on the books.
    (Please no rude replies, that what happens every time I give suggestions for this movie, and I've had enough as it is)

  24. High king Peter says:

    Yea, i know Will is old but recasting makes it, meh. most of the previous actors/ actresses are older and in my opinion, im kinda unsettled about no previous characters returning. Ben barnes, trumpkin could easily make appearance in SC coz they look same like before, so theres no point of recasting them. I wish Will could be casted as eustace, regarding him as a teenager.

    I wish the movie order of narnia was like this:
    1. LWW
    2. PC
    3. VDT
    4. SC
    5. MG
    6. LB
    and HBB as a spinoff

    Always thought HBB is more like a worthy spinoff to the series, yet its really lovable.
    Otherwise, after SC, the movies have to be made with no delay.!!