Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ Officially Wraps Filming
NarniaWeb has learned that principal photography on Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew has officially concluded in London, following a 6-month shoot which started back in August.
Filming had initially been scheduled to start in July and conclude by December, however a short delay at the start of production ended up pushing the schedule back by a month.
Overall, the shoot has spanned three concurrent studio locations — Shepperton, Longcross, and Cardington — and taken in a variety of different real-world filming locations across the cities of London, Manchester and Bradford.
The film now moves into its post-production phase, where the likes of Framestore and Weta are already hard at work on the visual effects, and with Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt collaborating together on the score. Other post-production activities are anticipated to take place at Netflix’s facilities in New York, including editing and sound mixing. Whilst the editor for the movie has not yet been confirmed, Greta Gerwig has previously worked with Nick Houy on all three of her previous films.
Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew will debut with a two-week IMAX run worldwide beginning November 26, before arriving on Netflix on Christmas Day.
Interestingly, there is officially 9 months & 26 days left before the finished film is made available to the public (limited release to boot). I look forward to hearing the opinions of Narniawebbers’ on whether or not the final product is worth it in the end (whatever it ends up being). We’ll see. Narnia is returning.
299 days to go! Excited for this!
Do you think we should be getting a book cover tie-in soon? I can’t remember when those were released during the Walden era, but I’m sure HarperCollins will want to get those on the market soon.
I mean a trailer or poster would be more intersting but it seems Netflix is content on staying silent with no promotion so I’m not banking on that happening anytime soon 😉
It’s a pity that It took so long for this book to be made into a film
Even with all my concerns, I’m very excited to see this in November. Further up and further in!
Didn’t they say that on Christmas Eve?
Aslan is on the move! Looking forward to seeing this.
Even after hearing that she was going to make Aslan into a woman, which was very disheartening, I’m still interested to see if she actually sticks to the book. Or if it will be another failed attempt at a Narnia movie.
Who is playing the voice of Aslan?
@Josiah Cosgrove – No, that was just when filming temporarily halted to let everyone go home for the Christmas holidays.
@Hayley Young – Meryl Streep looks likely to be providing the voice of Aslan, though this has yet to be confirmed.
I’m surprised all the filming was done so fast, especially all that ever leaked was them filming one particular scene.
@Col Klink, from what I’ve heard over the years, principal photography often happens for around six months. This quote is from Google AI: Key Aspects of Blockbuster Principal Photography:
Duration: Often spans 3 to 6 months for large-scale projects, though it varies based on scale.
Aslan is going to be female? So no mane then?
*Ahem.*
299 days until release!
I understand the chronological approach in going this route… but I’m still ticked that it’s being done this way. I blame Harper Collins for renumbering the books many years ago. “Magicians Nephew” will always be the 6th book.
The last battle is the last book , the magicians nephew is the fifth book, there are 3 films so far, so the horse and the boy and the magicians nephew are missing.
If she has made Aslan a female I’m not watching the film. If you make a film of such an important book you have to keep it like it is
C.S Lewis is a Christian, and Aslan represents Jesus Christ, all very obvious in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Dreading this. It’s a tremendous book to film, lots of action, great chsracters but those horrible American plastic Victoriana are nauseating but much worse are the hints that Meryl Streep will be the voice of Aslan [MODERATOR REMOVED]…
Anyone interested in post production proces
https://youtu.be/qKPHNWEV5_o?si=jdjG-Jj2W7h_EWO4
The Frankenstein twitter account went active around this time last year, with a set photo and cast list
https://x.com/FrankensteinGDT/status/1884968562055426370?s=20
So we will probably get something soon
Pretty cool links, Alex Anar.
While we’re all waiting to know more about the film, maybe we could take this time to imagine how we would script and design our own adaptations of TMN? That way, we can celebrate the book.
While Frankenstein finished filming in 2024 September 30, but the similar release date and similar size
From now 10 weeks of the directors DGA mandatory weeks
First trailer being released in June at TUDUM for playing on imax during the Odyssey IMAX, Spider-Man,…. Would sound about right
I was hoping to have Ludwig Göransson for the score
@Aslan, Ludwig is incredibly busy, Mando and Grogu, Sinners, The Odyssey, and the awards campaign for Sinners , he would have divided attention and the overall quality of the work would suffer , same with Zimmer with F1, Harry Potter and Dune 3, same with Alexander Desplat working and promoting Frankenstein who worked on Little women
The magician’s nephew has a lot of diegetic music and a new musical score with motifs that will be used in other installments so there is a far greater pressure and work load on composers
Nobody knows who has been cast as Aslan. The Meryl Streep rumour was just that: a rumour. Let’s not leap to any angry culture war conclusions, and instead look forward to the first big budget adaptation of one of the best books in this series.
There are 7 books:
The Lion, the Witch and the wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The horse and his boy
The Magicians Nephew
The Last Battle
I am concerned about this. It took Netflix several years after acquiring the rights to the Narnia franchise to even begin making films and such. Two, they made Aslan female. Three, the setting of the Netflix version will start in 1950s England and will end in the mid to late 2000s if all the books are made. Four, this IS Netflix we are taking about.
Aslan is not female! Its just a voice acting. [MODERATOR REMOVED]
I actually am reading the Book now but didnt finish it since i got eye problem so i hope the movie is worth the wait.
Hoping the rumors are not true. If Aslan is voiced by a female, I’m out. That would show some serious judgement issues in the part of the director and whomever allowed her to make such an erroneous decision. Were it true, I predict we will end up with a movie with a movie that starts trying from the anticipation, has mixed reviews, and then fizzles out with future book not being made. Meryl Streep is a wonderful actress, but I don’t know anyone that would watch it because Meryl Streep would be the voice of Aslan. I do know there are lots of people that would be watching this because they are Christian and will not watch it if she or another female is the voice of Aslan.
Dont know why my comment saying its transphobia got removed.
I think it should be something to be discussed here. I get the point of some people that love it like the real bible but it’s not. It’s a fiction book. Lions dont talk. I am not Christian but I am a huge fan of Narnia. I am part of the LGBT community and saying that Aslan couldnt be voiced by another voice acting than a cis-male person is kinda transphobic.
@Peter – Unfortunately the comment section rules say “no debating politics or religion” . It’s not a moral judgement either way, it’s just a blanket rule to ensure things remain focused.
https://www.narniaweb.com/comment-section-rule/
@Peter, the character of Aslan is a male, and changing it to female serves no purpose other than to appease a specific group of people. In one of the books, Aslan literally says “But [in your world] I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.” Aslan is a deliberate Christ figure.
Changing Aslan to a female spits in the face of the God of the Bible, as He is consistently spoken of as He, Him, His, Father, King, etc. Changing it adds nothing, and only takes away from the story and the God that Aslan is based on.
Are we up for another [MODERATOR REMOVED] interpretation of a beloved Christian children’s book series? Totally over it! I wish film makers would stop pushing agendas and start respecting the author’s original intent and narrative.
Not sure the rationale with casting of Meryl Streep. Huge Narnia fan…but will not be watching if thats the case.
Everything we know about this production sounds awful. What a waste.
Peter, I don’t think my motive for wanting Aslan portrayed as male is transphobic and maybe they did cast Streep but have her playing a male Aslan. We don’t know.
These are my reasons that Aslan should be a male lion:
1. If a story is well-written, changing the gender of the main character will change how the character reacts and also how he or she is treated.
2. There has not been a movie adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew before and I hope to see one that is fairly faithful to the messages of the book.
3. C.S. Lewis was more experienced with father figures, he deeply loved his mom when he was a child, but she died of cancer. He took in children to his home in Oxford during the Blitz to protect them, so his personal experience relating to children was as a paternal figure.
4. Aslan sacrifices himself for Edmund’s betrayal and is humiliated by Jadis’ followers. There is a movement in society to blame all society’s problems on women. But historically, our culture valued the strong sacrificing themselves for the weak, to protect them, instead of tearing them down. Of course, many women, children, and men with physical disabilities have sacrificed themselves to help and save others, but Aslan is setting an example for the Pevensie children in addition to saving Edmund. As kings and queens, they will then have great power and they also put themselves at risk. Susan was planning on marrying a man two countries away which would have created an alliance with Calormen. Peter almost died fighting Miraz to keep the Old Narnians from having to fight. Lucy and Edmund fought to defend their neighbor: Archenland. A female Aslan would also have great power as the representative of God in Narnia, but audiences would be more likely to think of Jadis as an equal to her, like a Yin-yang situation or the belief that the Devil is equal in power to God. As for me, I am a Christian woman, so because C.S. Lewis is so clear that Aslan represents Jesus Christ in Narnia, it doesn’t feel okay to change him.
5. Digory’s father is absent for work, and Digory is left with his mom who’s very ill, Aunt Letty, and Uncle Andrew. Uncle Andrew is a terrible father figure to Digory and Aslan is a positive one.
Benefits of Aslan being portrayed as female:
1. Aslan creates Narnia and brings life into it. Women are usually given the ability to bring children into the world, so this would relate to the aspect of creation in the first book.
2. Meryl Streep is a good actress.
3. Critics will praise and complain about the movie for being revolutionary and progressive, which will bring press to the franchise and get more people to hear about it.
4. The Guardian wrote an article about how Narnia is misogynistic. I don’t believe it is fair to the series and it leaves out crucial plot points, but if Aslan is portrayed as female, maybe it would get in their good graces. Or maybe not, what with the sacrifice issue.
I hope this explains my thoughts. I am not the best writer.
Well, December 2026 and December 2027 will both be exciting in the movie world–Magician’s Nephew release this year and The Hunt for Gollum releasing in 2027… I can’t say which I have higher hopes for…probably HFG since it’s being done by the same people who made the original movies, but I am a very open-minded person, so long as Aslan gets what he deserves 😉 Further up and further in!
@SusanArcher, hallelujah to that!
@EJH really good run-down, I especially like how you give an unbiased comparison of the pros and cons of doing the gender-swap. Overall I agree that a male Aslan is better, but more for story reasons than religious reasons. That being said, I do think Peter brings up a fair concern that some people’s reactions to this may be something they want to do some self-examining on.
I’d be shocked if Aslan were voiced by a woman for one main reason: money. Disney learned this lesson the hard way. Family movies that are perceived as having an “agenda” have generally underperformed, and Disney has openly shifted direction on multiple projects in recent years to avoid controversy.
Netflix isn’t in the movie business; it’s in the money-making business—and they’re very good at it. Making Aslan “controversial” (not by my definition, but by the standards of the core C.S. Lewis audience, which skews socially conservative) wouldn’t make business sense.
I am excited to see a Narnia movie directed by someone who has made live-action movies before! Andrew Adamson had never made a live-action movie before he made the first two movies.
@EJH While I totally agree that Aslan should remain a male lion (it wouldn’t make sense otherwise), I don’t see why having him voiced by an actress is such a problem. People assume casting a woman means changing the character’s gender, but to me, a voice is just a voice—it doesn’t change who the character is.
I’m generally against changing the books, but I admit some changes are necessary because the books often lack detail. The WWII context in Disney’s LWW, was good to help kods now undrrstand the war and the book only have a single sentence about it, making scense to the kids of that time. The same way, I dislike how Fox handled VDT (especially Lucy wanting to be Susan, she was a for years!!), but they did need to fill in the narrative gaps with that green smoke.
Regarding the “misogyny” aspect—ai understand that it is present in the text (Digory twisting Polly’s arm, Aravis, and the eventual fate of Susan). It’s a valid critique that we can’t ignore but I think we should have a discussion about it in the future. I do think the twisted arm will appear on the movie.
I really appreciate your points on the faith aspect. I respect that view, but I also believe that once a book is published, the author no longer controls the interpretation. A reader in a culture that doesnt know Christianity (like China or India, for example) might see Aslan simply as a father figure or a teacher, and that interpretation is valid too.
Maybe Meryl is voicing Aslan in Charn? Who knows. Either way, her and Daniel Craig made me really want to see this movie.
Really enjoyed your comment and I told myself I wouldn’t reply anymore but I really liked the way you answered me and I think you understand my point of view too. Thank you!
It always perplexes me when people call Narnia misogynistic. Even as a child, I felt that Lewis portrayed his female characters in quite a nuanced and appealing way in every Narnia book after Prince Caspian. Even in the first two, he wasn’t really misogynistic as much as realistic; Lucy was a small child, and Susan’s character was written to be more soft/gentle. (Susan was said to be a master archer, she just didn’t have a stomach for violence.) However, as more of a tomboy and strong personality myself, I craved what Aravis, Jill, and adult Lucy brought to the table. Those characters were downright revolutionary coming from the mind of a man in the 1950s, and they are still captivating today.
Just be excited that this film is being made, and reserve all judgement until AFTER you have seen it. Can’t wait to finally see a film of TMN, and in a cinema.
@Peter and @EJH, thanks for the thoughtful, understanding dialogue you’re modeling here. Finding that in the comments section is rare, especially for a controversial topic, and I appreciate the civility and understanding you both demonstrate. Kudos!
Jacob, I don’t know that it’s rare, but long comments on the Internet are often ignored, so I think good discussions are limited. I had to wait for a day I was not completely worn out from nightshifts to write the comment and even then it took me at least an hour to write because my phone glitched and I am not a writer.
I do think that writers, with the benefit of knowing their own intentions and also the extra content that was cut from their books, should be listened to. I mean, it’s not technically canon if it isn’t spelled out in the books, but it also is good to know what the writers intended to convey.
For example, people wanted to interpret Lord of the Rings as simply a response to WWII. This was so widespread that Tolkien later added a foreword to the first book explaining his goals of writing, that he was writing Lord of the Rings before WWII, and explaining his personal strong dislike of allegory. Of course, eventually so much time will pass that it will be difficult for future readers to not conflate LotR with WWII, just based on how much they know about the 1900s. To these future generations, Tolkien would be wrong about his work or naive or too close to realize about it.
That is sort of what happens with Lewis being criticized for Polly complaining that Susan is no longer interested in Narnia and just likes lipsticks and nylons. Lewis later wrote that Susan might find her way back to Narnia in her own way. The comment was Polly’s way of basically saying that Susan had become materialistic. For context, Polly’s generation in England was not into lipsticks or hose, so it fit her character’s POV and we can see from Lewis writing so many heroic girl characters that Narnia doesn’t seem misogynistic, without selectively taking passages out of context. This was one thing Andrew Adamson’s films developed well: that Susan was interested in prioritizing their lives in England.
@EJH you said something really important here: what aren’t in the books cant be considered canon. i am currently reading the volume 3 of the collected letters of c. s. lewis and it’s clear his idea of what the narnian stories are from his perspective (also the cosmic trilogy) but it isn’t anywhere in the books. people have this interpretation and it’s fine.
in the end of the day, i just want to go to the movies and watch what i think it’s gonna be a good film. laugh with jokes, see the creation of narnia (i think it’s gonna be beautiful. can you imagine?) and cry a lot like I did in prince caspian!
ps: people always talk about the christian background of narnia but what about the medieval one? i ordered some books by lewis about it and i think i’m going to find more interesting things there.