Who remembersThe Chronicles of Narnia? While maybe not as well known as other fantasy series likeThe Lord of the RingsorHarry Potter, the books by C.S. Lewis maintain a large following even decades after they were published. The early to mid-2000s were the golden erafor series like thisto make the jump to the silver screen. AlongsideLord of the RingsandHarry Potter, Narnia saw three of its seven books adapted to film between 2005 and 2010. You’ll notice that we said three of the seven, so what happened to the rest?
Disney released the first two films in the series,The Lion, the Witch, and the WardrobeandPrince Caspian.The third entry,The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, was handled by 20th Century Fox. However, after its 2010 release,the series ground to a halt. A fourth entry was planned, but years of complex contract negotiations left any future projects in limbo. Last we heard, new installments were set to come to Netflix, but information on that has been sparse as well.
Now, let’s take a look at theNarniafilm series, what happened to it, and if we could ever see those books back on the big screen.
The Earliest Adaptations
During his lifetime, author C.S. Lewis was skeptical of adapting his books to film. He believed that the characters and location in the series were too fantastical and, due to the limits of 1950s technology, could never accurately be represented on screen. Too bad Lewis died before he could see the wonder of early 2000s CGI. If he had watched the masterfully rendered Scorpion King inThe Mummy Returns, he might have changed his tune.
Just a few years after Lewis' passing,The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobewas first adapted into a 10-part TV series in 1967. An animated retelling of the same book later followed in 1979. Finally, a second TV series adapted the first four books in the series between 1988 and 1990. However, it still took nearly 50 years after the series' publication for a proper film adaptation to hit the big screen.
The Modern Film Series
In 2005, themodern series launchedwithThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It centered on the four Pevensie kids – Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy – as they discover a portal to the world of Narnia inside an old wardrobe. Three years later,Prince Caspianbrought the Pevensies back to Narnia and introduced the titular prince.
Related:The Most Obvious Biblical Allegories in The Chronicles of Narnia
The original trilogy ended in 2010 withThe Voyage of the Dawn Treader. However, it was not planned to be the last in the series. In 2011, it was reported thatThe Silver Chair, the fourth published book, would be the next movie. However, conflicting reports also identifiedThe Magician’s Nephew, the sixth book and a series prequel, as next up on the big screen. Later that year, C.S. Lewis' estate’s deal with production company Walden Media ended due to internal disagreements about the direction of the series, and the film franchise was effectively at a standstill.
Two years later, in 2013, Lewis' estatemade a new agreementwith The Mark Gordon Company to produceThe Silver Chairas the fourth film. For a time, production appeared to be moving along, with financiers and distributors announced up through 2017. Would the long-delayed fourth entry finally see the light of day? Not so fast.
Enter Netflix
In 2018, the streaming giantacquired all rights to theNarnialibrary, the first time a single company had ever done so. With the pickup, Netflix detailed its plans to produce new film and TV adaptations over a multi-year period. The streamer’s pickup also meant an end to all outside production, including the Mark Gordon Company-producedSilver Chair,though Gordon himself remained as an executive producer.
Netflix announced its lofty ideas for the series nearly five years ago, but once again, information was slow to trickle out. This series apparently just has bad luck, no matter who’s producing it. After some talent acquisition in 2019, we heard almost nothing for several years.
But there may still be hope. Fast-forward to July 2023.Barbenheimerfever has gripped the nation. So who better to helm futureNarniaprojects? Why,Barbiedirector Greta Gerwig, of course. Reportedly, Gerwig is set to direct two future Narnia projects for Netflix. We don’t know which books she will adapt or when we might see them on screen. But at least that’s some confirmation that the series hasn’t been lost to time.Lady Bird, Little Woman, Barbie,andNarnia. That is an impressive roster for Gerwig.
Related:Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: Every Fan Theory So Far, Explained
So what does this mean? WillNarniafans finally see the remaining novels come to life on the big screen? Well, seeing as how we’ve heard “a fourth movie is coming” for 10 years now, we shouldn’t hold our breath. It’s possible Netflix’s adaptation will fade into obscurity, just like the many other attempts that came before. However, enlisting Greta Gerwig – the first female director to helm a $1 billion dollar box office hit – shows that Netflix may still have some faith in the property. All we can do now is what we’ve been doing for years, wait and see.
