Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ to Receive Red Carpet Premieres, Marketing Plan “Already” Being Worked On
IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond says Greta Gerwig approached her upcoming Narnia adaptation as “really making an IMAX movie” from the beginning. Speaking at the Bank of America 2025 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference in New York on September 3, Gelfond revealed that plans for marketing the movie have already begun.
Greta Gerwig is the one who really started it. She felt that she was really making an IMAX movie, and she always wanted to make an IMAX movie.
IMAX films are shown on larger, higher-resolution screens with enhanced sound.
Gelfond emphasized that IMAX negotiated for the rollout to be supported by full-scale premieres, interviews, and a traditional theatrical-style marketing campaign, which is a level of promotion Netflix typically does not provide for its streaming-first releases.
We want the theatrical marketing, we want Greta to do her interviews, real premieres. You’ll see the marketing, which we’re already working on, much of which is going to say ‘see it in IMAX and on Netflix.’
This marks the second time in recent months that Gelfond has teased Netflix and IMAX’s rollout plans for Narnia. During a separate appearance on The Town with Matt Belloni podcast, he highlighted the project’s secrecy and claimed it will be marketed like a major theatrical event.
In that interview, Gelfond also joked about putting tickets for Narnia on sale early, similar to when IMAX began selling tickets for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on July 17, 2025 — a full year before the film is scheduled to hit theaters.
Narnia is set for an IMAX release in November 2026, with its Netflix release on Christmas Day 2026.
When do you think Netflix will begin marketing Narnia? What form do you expect it to take — a logo reveal, casting announcements, advance tickets, or something else?
I think that Narnia the magicians nephew is going to flop very hard at the box office and will likely lose against the hunger games 2026 film and Disney hexed 2026 films. This Narnia movie will not honor CS Lewis books and won’t be faithful adaptation. This will be like the crummy Artemis fowl 2020 movie. Personally I do not want to see Greta gerwig altered timeline Narnia film taking place in 1950s Elvis Presley and Doris Day rock and roll songs playing with a story of Aslan as a female lioness. Personally I’d rather watch the Chronicles of Narnia the lion witch and wardrobe 2005 second remake in IMAX theaters 20th anniversary instead. At this point I’d rather wait for an anime remake of Narnia the magicians nephew taking place in the 1900s. At rather read the 7 Narnia books instead.
The amount of presumptions in the previous comment only demonstrates to me that Netflix could probably stand to get a move on the marketing front 😉
There is a lot of worry from fans, but I hope Gerwig/Netflix can prove us wrong. I’m predicting we’ll get an announcement (or at least an acknowledgement of this movie’s existence) this November.
I want Greta Gerwig to do interviews about the movie too. Netflix keeps saying she has an awesome vision but so much of what we’ve heard and seen doesn’t sound or look awesome. A good interview, in which she lay out her vision (without getting into too many spoilers), would really make fans more eager to see the movie.
I just hope for a movie like the one from 2005 that is incredible. Regarding the marketing, I’m not worried, just don’t exaggerate and I didn’t like that Aslan’s voice changed, I don’t doubt it will be worse (maybe it will surprise us). I will still watch it with anticipation. Regards.
They should really release some better set photos of the actual cast because so far we’ve only seen the same stunt doubles over and over. And if they want any audience confidence at all, they should really confirm or put to bed the rumors rolling around about everything in the casting and such. There’s very little for the public to desire thus far. Plus, they may not really have an easy time marketing this at all. The 2025 Snow White remake has become the poster child for how NOT to remake a beloved tale and on the opposite front, the 2025 live action How To Train Your Dragon has shown how a remake should be done: with excellence and skill. Greta Gerwig and Netflix are going to have a pretty big job of convincing the public to even attempt to watch whatever it is they are making. The other thing they are going to have trouble with is the fact that, because so many attempts and starts and stops and true and false information have been going about for years now about more Narnia being made, but until this year, each announcement has led to nothing. Most people are probably still assuming nothing’s happening. And with the middling information now coming out from this production, I am willing to bet that not many people are giving it much thought. If they are truly releasing this next year, they really need to start showing some real information about this thing. I mean, we know more about that Harry Potter remake then we do about this production! Netflix is not helping it’s own cause by being on the down-low with this one. And they have big shoes to fill: if you google the word “Narnia”, 90% of results display images and information from Walden Media’s Narnia trilogy. They are going to have an impossible time getting to a place where this production takes that over. I, for my part, hope that it does not. The Walden films are brilliant and perfect and I don’t wish to see anyone else’s adaptation.
I hope this Magician’s Nephew movie feels like a Narnia movie. The outdoor filming among the landmarks has made me excited, even with the changes of the 1950s and the short dress and boots for Jadis. Digory and Polly both have excellent costuming and their actors seem excited to be part of the film. I think I will wait to know more before I decide to buy a ticket, though.
I have seen both the 2025 Snow White and HTTYD mentioned by Rosenquartz. (Spoilers after this) I watched Snow White with Spanish audio and I didn’t find fault with the acting, but they changed the prince to be a leader of a gang and Snow White becomes more of a counselor for the dwarves than a motherly figure to them and she doesn’t feel as naive, although she is naive multiple times putting herself in danger to stand up against the queen. Her bravery unites the various factions to come to the castle with her and the guards have sympathy and betray the evil queen. The changes removed the Christian undertone of Snow White singing “someday my prince will come,” and then ultimately being rescued by the prince who also restores her kingdom from corruption. In the original, her hope for a savior gives a uniting tone throughout the movie. As a human pure of heart, Snow White is able to take her place leading the animals of the forest but the prince restores her kingdom. It shows that even when powerless there is hope. The remake is very visually charming, but the message is different.
I was very happy with the How to Train Your Dragon live action movie by DreamWorks. Hiccup, Gobber, Astrid, and Stoick all have great acting and nuanced performances (in the English version.) It basically did not deviate much from the original movie, just adapted it to live action, added some scenes, and made it look wilder. The twins’ jokes weren’t as funny though. You feel sorry for the twins instead.
It’s hard to compare the movies because they are very different but I think theming is very important and Polly and Digory both takes turns leading the adventure in the book. Although they have different family circumstances, they both are inquisitive and adaptable to the new worlds they find. They are also able to recognize goodness and so they trust Aslan and Fledge. I really pray the movie is good and for safety with them filming the stunts.
October 15th will be the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . I really hope that we will get a lot of new information about the upcoming film on that day.
Avatar 3 is coming out this December and the first trailer only came out in about July. It was a similar time frame for Avatar 2 and it became one of the top 5 movies of all time at the box office.
It doesn’t matter if the Google results for Narnia are 90% for the Walden movies. Keep in mind that it is still over 14 months until Gerwig’s movie comes out. Often there is not much advertising more than a year out. So we can expect very few websites to be about it by now. Most of the online content about it would be from fan pages like this one or movie websites. Once visual marketing starts (logo, trailer, poster, interview) the online results will reflect the new movie a bit more. And then it will spill into people’s feeds on social media.
Niceeee! I remember some Narnia webbers being worried about only getting a release announcement by Netflix or trailer two weeks before the movie comes out. Whether we will like the movie or not, at least we can expect something official sooner rather than later!
And while I agree with Impending Doom that it’s also about time for them to get to the marketing, I think it’s also important to acknowledge that many people don’t know yet that this is happening at all. And I guess the producers also have their ideas about how long before a movie it makes sense to release which kind of information (I hope?).
The business plan of not respecting source material has been proven as a busted flush at Disney. They’re now scrambling with dealing with too many loses and a weakened political position for the next three years. This will come to netflix who’s offerings are starting to stagnate. Sadly this is just another production of that broken thought process and self insert egotism of the show runner. The Witcher is an excellent example of it and Netflix. I have read the entire series and learned a lot on Slavic folklore and mindset, the show has non of that and it’s lack of respect to it’s Slavic source is borderline racist.
I am looking forward to seeing the movie but not in an IMAX . I don’t want to drive to a big city with all the traffic. I would go to my local theater to view. I live in an area where streaming isn’t possible. Yup those areas still exist! I can always wait until it comes out on a DVD.
Susan Noonan, Netflix lets you download nearly anything to a laptop to watch offline if you have the app. The downloads are there for about three weeks. Time change Sunday breaks it, but it is easy to download videos on the public library wifi and then watch at home.
You can even connect the laptop to the TV to make the picture bigger. The other streamers only allow downloads to phones or tablets, which is annoying because the screens are small, but Netflix is better about this.