NarniaWeb’s Year in Review: Top 10 Stories of 2025

2025 was a landmark year for the Narnia community. Fans celebrated 75 years of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, revisiting the series and voting on a definitive ranking of the books. Walden Media’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe film adaptations turned 15 and 20 years old, respectively, marked with special cast reunions.

Most of the conversation, though, revolved around Netflix and Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Narnia adaptations. From casting calls and on-set photos to crew announcements and cryptic hints, fans followed every development closely, discussing what it might mean for the series.

Below are the Top 10 NarniaWeb stories of 2025. Rankings are based on a combination of site readership, social media engagement, and community discussion.

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10. Narnia is Coming Back to the Big Screen

One of the very first major stories of the year was the culmination of reports we had been hearing throughout 2024: Greta Gerwig’s first Narnia film would receive a worldwide IMAX release on November 26, 2026.

For fans who have been following the franchise’s long and uncertain journey back to the screen since 2010, this announcement was a huge moment. From Joe Johnston’s and David Magee’s long-developing The Silver Chair, to Matthew Aldrich’s early work at Netflix, and finally to Gerwig taking the helm, the news made the project feel tangible in a way it hadn’t for many years.

Gerwig emphasized that, given the “scope and grandeur of the material,” a theatrical release was important to her vision. Securing an IMAX debut required Netflix to soften its traditionally theatre-averse stance, resulting in a deal that granted Gerwig exclusive access to roughly 1,000 IMAX screens worldwide for a two-week window. 

While the IMAX deal sparked controversy within the industry, for Narnia fans it marked a long-awaited moment. After years of uncertainty, the announcement made it clear that The Chronicles of Narnia was no longer a hypothetical future project, but a film with a date and real momentum.

9. New BBC Narnia Documentary

One of Narnia’s older screen adaptations received renewed attention this year with an all-new remaster and a two-hour documentary featuring more than 30 members of the original cast and crew, including many of its young stars. Notably absent from the reunion were Warwick Davis (Reepicheep, Glimfeather) and Tom Baker (Puddleglum).

Beyond reminiscing on old stories from set, the documentary offered new insight into the series’s production history — including whether the filmmakers ever seriously considered adapting The Last Battle and the thinking behind casting Barbara Kellerman as both the White Witch and the Lady of the Green Kirtle in The Silver Chair.

NarniaWeb’s initial post on the documentary ranked among our most-read stories of the year, drawing 25,000 views on the site and reaching over 2.2 million impressions on our social platforms. This huge response served as a reminder of just how cherished the BBC adaptations remain, despite receiving less attention than their big-screen counterparts.

Hopefully, we’ll see BBC change their mind and decide to release it worldwide in 2026.

8. The Magician’s Nephew Confirmed… Kind Of

In January, NarniaWeb first broke the news that casting had begun for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia adaptation. We obtained a copy of a casting call seeking two children, one boy and one girl, to portray characters aged 10 or 11. These details all but confirmed that Netflix would be adapting the first story in Narnia’s internal chronology, The Magician’s Nephew.

Reaction to the news was overwhelmingly positive. Many fans (even publication order enthusiasts) welcomed the decision to adapt a story that has never appeared on the big screen, rather than revisiting The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe once again. Interest extended beyond longtime readers as well, with aspiring Polly and Digory hopefuls helping make this the most-read story on NarniaWeb in all of 2025. More than 45,000 readers visited our write-up, with the news reaching over a million people across our social media platforms.

Later in the year, we heard directly from individuals involved in the production that The Magician’s Nephew had indeed been confirmed.

7. Timeline Change

One of the year’s most discussed stories began when NarniaWeb first reported that at least some scenes in The Magician’s Nephew would shift the setting from 1900 to the 1950s. The conclusion was initially based on a casting call we obtained in August, which sought boys with “short, tidy hair to match the 1950s setting,” immediately setting off a wave of speculation. Was the change intended as a framing device? Could C.S. Lewis himself appear as a narrator-type character?

Only days later, the first images from set appeared online. Background posters and newspapers visible in the photos clearly referenced the year 1955 — the same year The Magician’s Nephew was first published. The evidence strongly suggests that the film’s entire timeline has been updated, although Netflix has yet to confirm the change officially.

Regardless of the motivation, the timeline shift proved to be one of the year’s most debated developments. Polling conducted by NarniaWeb showed that more than than 45% of respondents opposed the change, 25% were unsure, and 30% thought it could be a positive one.

6. Practical Effects

In one of the more unexpected entries on this year’s list, NarniaWeb reported that long-time creature effects artist Neal Scanlan would be working on Greta Gerwig’s Narnia, indicating that practical effects like animatronics and puppetry would be used to help bring Narnia’s creatures to life.

It quietly became our most shared news report on Instagram, with 13,000 shares and nearly 3 million views, showing that there is a contingent of Narnia and film fans just as excited about hands-on effects as they are about casting or set details.

Scanlan is a veteran of animatronics and practical effects, having worked at the legendary Jim Henson Creature Shop during the 1990s. Over the course of his career, he has earned five Academy Awards, bringing a level of expertise fans hope will help make Narnia’s creatures feel authentic on screen, alongside contributions from visual effects houses such as Framestore.

5. On Location Filming in England

Filming began on location in England in August, giving fans their first genuine glimpse behind the scenes of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia. Photos from the first day revealed Jadis’ stunt double costume, actors portraying Digory and Polly, and expansive sets populated by hundreds of extras. The scenes appeared to depict a post-war, reconstruction-era British streets, complete with period details and a striking billboard featuring a golden-maned Lion.

Our coverage became the third-most-read article on NarniaWeb in 2025. Former Narnia stars took notice of filming as well, with Ben Barnes liking our post and William Moseley commenting that he wished he could be on set for the new film.

In the following weeks, we saw moments including Jadis riding into the Tower of London with Digory, crashing a royal parade, possibly using magic in another scene, and shots of Digory walking home.

The ongoing flow of set photos from filming made for an especially active end to the summer, with over 3 million views across our social channels and fans dissecting every frame captured.

4. Disney’s Narnia Turns 20

The 20th anniversary of Disney and Walden Media’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe sparked a huge wave of nostalgia when the Pevensie actors reunited and recreated a behind-the-scenes photo from two decades earlier with director Andrew Adamson.

Georgie Henley shared the image on Instagram alongside William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, and Skandar Keynes. The images we shared across NarniaWeb’s social platforms quickly amassed over 10 million views, demonstrating just how deeply these versions of the characters resonate with fans.

In an interview with Metro, Popplewell reflected on the bond the four actors still share:

The four of us are bonded because we had this incredible adventure together that spanned many years throughout our childhood and adolescence. But that translated very well into life beyond that adventure. So we see each other whenever we can.”

Anna Popplewell

To celebrate the milestone, fans joined a 20th-anniversary watch party on NarniaWeb’s Discord, re-watching the film together and chatting with Talking Beasts podcasters and fellow community members.

3. “Not Your Grandmother’s Narnia”?

While Netflix has kept details on Greta Gerwig’s Narnia under lock and key, with production members admitting to getting a “slap on the wrist” for just mentioning working on the project, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond has spoken freely about the film on several occasions. Though not creatively involved, his comments have drawn outsized attention given IMAX’s central role in the film’s theatrical release.

The remarks that generated the most discussion came during an IMAX Investor Day presentation, when Gelfond described the project as follows: “This is not your mother’s or your grandmother‘s Narnia. The music in it is unbelievably contemporary music, which IMAX fans like. I’m not gonna say specifically, but things like Pink Floyd and The Doors.”

The quote quickly spread online and became NarniaWeb’s most-engaged post on X of the year (with 2.6 million impressions) as well as a Top 10 read article on the site. Much of the reaction focused on the contradiction between calling the music contemporary while naming artists whose popularity peaked decades ago, with many fans also feeling the language was dismissive of the books themselves.

Readers have pointed out that Gelfond has previously shown limited familiarity with the series, twice suggesting The Chronicles of Narnia consisted of “eight or nine books,” and elsewhere characterizing Narnia as a children’s “Christmas story”.

Even so, the remarks struck a nerve by tapping into long-standing concerns among fans about the upcoming film’s tone and its faithfulness to the source material. With Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (both of whom built their careers in contemporary music) attached as composers, and producer Amy Pascal previously describing Gerwig’s Narnia as being “all about rock and roll,” Gelfond’s comments certainly intensified an already sensitive topic.

2. Narnia Turns 75!

The 75th anniversary of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was marked by a wide range of commemorative releases. New Narnia-themed stamps, book covers, and board books were commissioned to celebrate the series’ first release in 1950.

Publisher HarperCollins completed a full refresh of the entire Narnia catalogue, including new cover art by Owen Richardson. Fans in our Discord channel quickly noticed easter eggs inspired by the Planet Narnia theory were hidden in the cover art.

To mark the occasion, NarniaWeb also revisited a familiar tradition: ranking the books. This time, readers were asked to choose their top three, resulting in a more nuanced picture of how the community views the series today. While The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Horse and His Boy ultimately claimed first and second place, the remaining rankings were remarkably close.

Here’s to the next 75 years of C.S. Lewis’ classic!

1. Meryl Madness

Without question, the most controversial and widely discussed story of 2025 involved reports from two outlets claiming that Meryl Streep was in talks to voice Aslan. The first report went further, alleging the character would also be gender-swapped. To date, Netflix, Greta Gerwig, and the production team have not commented on the story.

In the absence of official clarification, fans have speculated endlessly. In our Discussion Forum alone, the topic spanned 20 pages of discussion and garnered more than 45,000 views as members attempted to make sense of the report.

Would Streep be one of several voices for Aslan? Could her voice be altered in post-production? Was there confusion, and might she actually be playing a different character altogether? What if the report really comes to pass?

Whether the report proves accurate or not (see NarniaWeb’s investigation), the story triggered intense backlash online. Netflix’s continued silence has unsettled some fans, while others emphasize that the project is still in its early stages. Either way, the controversy cast a long shadow over much of the year’s subsequent coverage — and led to a noticeable sense of fatigue within the Narnia community.

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We would like to thank all our readers, listeners, and Patreon supporters for making NarniaWeb’s 2025 what it was.

Over the past year, we published 106 articles, helping the site reach 1.4 million views — all ad-free, thanks to our Patreon supporters. We also released 14 episodes of Talking Beasts, which were listened to 36,000 times, and hosted thousands of user posts in our Discussion Forum, generating more than 250,000 views. Across our social media platforms, we shared hundreds of posts and updates that were viewed over 55 million times in total.

As we look ahead to an even busier 2026, our mission remains the same:

• Provide objective reporting on the latest Narnia news and clearly distinguish between fact and rumor
• Facilitate civil, productive, and enjoyable discussion about the world of Narnia
• Amplify the voices of readers who want filmmakers to treat C.S. Lewis’s beloved books with the respect they deserve.

Thank you for being part of the NarniaWeb community. Further Up and Further In!

What was the biggest story for you in 2025? What was your favorite? Was there anything we missed? Leave a comment below and let us know!