NarniaWeb Investigates: Will Aslan be a Lioness?
Ever since an unconfirmed report surfaced that Aslan will be reimagined as female in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Narnia movie, the NarniaWeb news team has been tirelessly investigating.
While the results of our inquiry are far from conclusive, we have reason to doubt that Aslan will be portrayed as a lioness (even if a female actor provides the voice).
Initial Report
- In March, Nexus Point News reported that Meryl Streep was in talks to voice Aslan in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew and that the character would be portrayed as female.
- Days later, Deadline corroborated that Streep was indeed in talks to voice Aslan. But they could not confirm Gerwig’s plans for the character’s gender.
Netflix declined our request for comment and has remained silent on the matter. In recent months, Streep’s name has continued to be linked to Aslan by outlets including Variety, Deadline, and The Hollywood Reporter. No other actors have been publicly connected to the role.
Our Findings
- Shortly after the story broke, an individual well-connected to the project told NarniaWeb that they hadn’t seen any evidence confirming a gender-swapped Aslan.
- More recently, another source close to the production independently indicated to us that Aslan will not be a lioness.
- Several crew members have shared images of maned lions in their professional portfolios for Narnia, and at least two art pieces depicting male lions were spotted on the first day of filming.
- Writer/Director Greta Gerwig was recently spotted wearing a lion necklace on set.
Conclusions
Taking all this into account, the consensus of the NarniaWeb news team is that the evidence suggests Aslan will probably retain his mane even if Meryl Streep voices the character. Exactly how those two realities may come together in terms of voice, tone, and characterization remains to be seen.
It’s obviously quite hard to say anything for certain about the production from the outside, especially given that the people working on it are often under strict NDAs, but I think it’s quite telling that every time.we have managed to.get a peak behind the curtain, all of the evidence points towards a traditional male Lion.
There’s still likely a lot of unanswered questions, and it could still end up being something less than ideal, but the one thing I think is clear from everything we’ve seen and heard so far, is that the Streep rumours aren’t quite as straightforward as the initial reporting suggested.
Fingers crossed.
Aslan is through the whole film series which will take years and Meryl is an extremely busy actor who doesn’t really do film franchises and SHE is 76 and so I’m highly doubtful as well, as I said all along.
It seems every couple of weeks there is upset over a detail that is later debunked
Remember CharlieXCX, which didn’t happen, or, the delay from July to autumn, when set photos were seen on 11 Aug.
I know that nothing is confirmed, but PHEW. Even when I initially heard the Streep rumors I tried to put on a bold face like Glumpuddle and assume that we don’t have all the answers yet (or I was in denial). I was trying to remain optimistic.
This past week kind of shattered that optimism in a way, seeing that the movie will be set in the 1950s, and all the implications that has for LWW. This has renewed my spirits in a way and I feel a weight begin to lift. But who really knows anything though?
Did you do this report just because I commented that I wished the recent Talking Beasts episode had talked about the image of the male lion in the recent set photos? That was nice of you. Actually, it was nice of you, whether or not that was the reason.
I just want to say a personal ‘thank you’ for all of you news team members for looking into this. Not just because it’s an outcome that I personally hope for, but because many other sites immediately latch onto any controversy and run with it, without fact checking. So it’s much appreciated. I hope you all are correct!
Aslan being portrayed on screen as male vs. female is a deal breaker for me personally, as to whether or not I support the film.
In my opinion, this news brings things down from insulting to possibly “just” a major miscast.
It’s still hard to picture a 75-year-old Meryl Streep voicing the character we know from the books. Then again, there’s a long history of actors who were initially rejected by fans but ended up being fantastic in their roles.
At this point, with so many unknowns, I’m willing to wait and see how the performance turns out and what they decide to do with his voice.
But hey… at least it no longer appears to be the worst case scenario.
Thank you for taking time to bring light into a topic which could have destroyed Narnia.
My theory is Streep is going to be Digory’s Aunt instead of having an uncle Andrew. (Streep has played quirky magicians in the past and she’s good at that persona). The second part of the theory is that Daniel Craig will instead voice Aslan. These are the 2 heavily rumored cast members, and based on the evidence (and what’s been suggested in this report), seems most likely.
Just to be clear, i think its still fairly unequivocal that Meryl Streep *was* in talks to play Aslan, and very likely *will* still play Aslan…. its just that Aslan might not actually be a Female Lion after all.
Whether that outcome is ideal or not, it remains to be seen, and whether either outcome will come to pass or not, also remains to be seen, but as yet, the evidence rather confusingly seems to point towards (likely) Meryl Streep voicing a (possibly) Male Lion.