Narnia Themed Attractions Planned for Netflix House Locations
It appears Netflix is taking a page from the Disney playbook with the opening of Netflix House, a series of physical attractions designed to bring its popular shows and films into the real world — and it looks like Narnia will be part of those plans.
Philadelphia, Dallas, and Las Vegas are the announced locations, with the first two opening this year. According to The Hollywood Reporter, each two-story venue is complete with immersive themed experiences, a full-size movie theatre for special events, a restaurant serving series-inspired dishes, a mini-putt course, retail shop, and interactive recreations of popular Netflix sets.
Some of the first confirmed experiences include One Piece, an escape-room-style adventure, and Wednesday, which transforms the venue into the Eve of the Outcasts carnival. Existing attractions range from 30-60 minutes in length.
Netflix Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee highlighted Narnia as one of the titles already being planned for future experiences:
There are 100 percent shows that we know are going to be huge. For example, we’ve announced that Greta Gerwig is working on a Narnia movie for us, and that comes out next Christmas in 2026. We already know that will be massive, so we can bet forward on things that we know will be popular.”
This announcement provides fans with an early glimpse into how the company is preparing for Narnia marketing ahead of its 2026 release.
What experiences would you want to see from The Magician’s Nephew at Netflix House?
I think designing the Wood Between the Worlds as the main lobby and access point to the other “worlds” would be too good an opportunity to pass up.
This may be because I’m already skeptical of Gerwig’s adaptation, but I’m a little apprehensive at this. It just seems like they’re so focused on the marketing, commercial, and merchandise side of it all rather than the heart of Narnia. The aforementioned three factors are important and have a place, but they should NEVER compromise the beating heart of what makes Narnia…well…”Narnia”. Safe to say I will remain apprehensive of this until it is proven otherwise.
@LunarStarStudios – to be fair, last week this site ran an editorial pointing out how little marketing work Netflix have actually done on the project, and they also haven’t featured the project at any of their commercial engagements this year (e.g. Tudum), nor have they signed any merchandise licensing deals yet as far as anyone knows, therefore you probably don’t need to be overly worried about them excessively focusing on those 3 things just yet
“They’re so focused on the marketing, commercial, and merchandise side of it all”
I agree that focusing too much on those things would be an issue. But I also think this might be the first time I’ve seen a NarniaWebber say Netflix has focused too much on marketing so far 😉
Last week : no marketing
This week : too much marketing
Just hear me out , Maybe the reason we have only heard about the distribution and marketing because the only people who have spoken about the film have been largely from marketing and distribution
But also considering how some off the cuff comments by actors regarding other movies a la Snow White ( not to add to the pile-on), it’s better to have silence and then considered remarks from the actual creative minds behind the adaptation in good time than to get comments that will be misconstrued into rage bait
That’s very positive language about Narnia. I hope they actually have as much faith in the new Narnia movie as that sounds. I suppose it is right to have high hopes. After all, it’s a multi-hundred-million dollar investment.
I hope that the movie is done right in the first place. And I hope the Narnia attraction would be faithful to the intention of Lewis, just like Harry Potter attractions are meant to keep to the spirit of Rowling’s writings.
Now this is awesome news! More of this please! The possibilities are endless for cool (and tasteful) Narnian experiences/attractions.
Does Netflix really think it’s wise to open park attractions at a time when people don’t even have enough money to go to Disneyworld right now???
Also, speaking of Disneyworld, this reminds me of the time when Disney was poised to release their 2001 film “Atlatis”, and before the movie had even released, they began building a park attraction based on it because they were certain that it was going to be a huge hit. But the movie arrived in cinemas and the box office did poorly and Disney panicked and didn’t open the theme park attraction after all, knowing it wouldn’t work now that film audiences hadn’t cared for the film.
Netflix’s approach to this is baffling. The cast and crew are not allowed, seemingly, to speak for the production at all, but the marketing team from the merchandising side of things seem to be able to talk of it as if it were a sure thing. So….what? You can’t market something and make park attractions for something that no one knows or cares about. And if the only thing anyone knows about it is that the cast aren’t allowed to speak about it, that makes it worse. This whole thing isn’t going to do very well at all and will probably do worse than “Snow White” did at the box office. I’ll be quite amused when that happens. Maybe we’ll even get a new Chat Music song!
Hopefully they will expand to locations in the UK, as I’d love to visit a place like this for Narnia.
This comment is for Rosenquartz. It’s not a theme park. These are huge spaces built in existing malls. To me, it seems like a pretty good way to still offer a large, physical, immersive environment without the major investments of a theme park. I’m not really fussed about how billionaires and their companies perform financially… if I get a cool Narnia experience to visit and a good movie, I’ll be very happy.
Also, not that I sense you actually care for conversation, but two things I wanted to point out:
1. It sounds like Netflix House is actually free to enter and explore. There will be ticketed attractions within, but you don’t have to spend any money if you don’t want to.
2. It won’t “probably” do worse than those movies… it will definitely make less. It’s only being released in IMAX theatres (around 1,000 screens), which means it’s a fraction of what most major blockbusters receive. Narnia’s success will be determined by how it performs on Netflix, where it actually generates its value/profits.
I wonder when we’re going to get another Talking Beasts episode. It feels like we have more than enough news for one now. But I understand the podcasters have lives and better things to do than make podcasts all day.
Really cool to hear! Give me a VR Narnia experience and I’ll drive to try this.
@Col Klink we’re recording another soon 🙂
People only know how to complain.
What a boring world we’ve become.
@Clevio complaining about complainers is *almost* worse… what do you think about Narnia attractions or VR experiences? I think it can be a cool idea.