2022 will mark the fourth anniversary of when Netflix announced it had acquired the rights to adapt new Chronicles of Narnia movies and series. Since then we’ve had one major announcement and a lot of nothing. Here’s everything we know about Netflix’s The Chronicles of Narnia adaptations as of April 2022 Show Before we dive into Netflix’s involvement in the future, let’s quickly take a look back at what the book series is and how it’s been adapted previously. Note: This is an ongoing article that’ll be updated over time as we learn more – last updated: November 25th, 2022. What are The Chronicles of Narnia?Let’s start with the basics. The Chronicles of Narnia is a book series by the famed author C.S. Lewis that was published in the 1950s. The book series is a fantasy series that transports us to the fictional realm of Narnia. In total, seven books were published under the Chronicles of Narnia banner. How The Chronicles of Narnia books have been developed beforeThe series has seen multiple adaptations over the years, including a BBC series, a radio series, and of course, the Disney movies. The book series’ biggest adaptation came in 2005 when Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media released the first movie entitled: “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” It later released another film that was distributed under Disney, with the third movie being distributed by 20th Century Fox. A fourth movie was planned but never materialized. How and when Netflix scored the Narnia franchiseThe news of Netflix teaming up with The C.S. Lewis Company dropped back in October 2018. Netflix has a “multi-year deal” whereby it will have multiple film and series projects on the go, all based on the books of Narnia exclusively. Alongside the original announcement, Ted Sarandos, who’s now the co-CEO of Netflix, said: “C.S. Lewis’s beloved Chronicles of Narnia stories have resonated with generations of readers around the world,” adding, “Families have fallen in love with characters like Aslan and the entire world of Narnia, and we’re thrilled to be their home for years to come.” It was also reiterated multiple times that Netflix would be adapting Narnia into a Universe, positioning the series to go up against the likes of Game of Thrones and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, albeit for a more family-orientated audience. You can see more from the original press release over on the official Narnia Facebook post, but here are the main lines:
The most important aspect of the Netflix deal, which makes it more unique than what has come before, is that it has access to all seven books. This means some of the later books that have never seen adaptations before could be coming to Netflix, which previous license owners haven’t been able to do. We know (courtesy of IMDbPro) that Mark Gordon, Douglas Gresham, and Vincent Sieber will be involved with most of the upcoming Netflix Narnia projects. Matthew Aldrich becomes “architect” on Narnia Universe for Netflix in 2019Months after waiting for more information on Narnia on Netflix, finally, we got some news on June 12th, 2019. The news came that the co-writer for Disney Pixar’s Coco, a multi-award-winning movie, will be working on Narnia. In a tweet, Netflix’s See What’s Next account said the following: “Coco co-writer Matthew Aldrich will serve as the creative architect and oversee the development of all films and shows adapted from C.S. Lewis’s beloved Narnia universe for Netflix.”
In January 2020, Narniaweb posted that Douglas Gresham (stepson of C. S. Lewis) has little knowledge of where Netflix is at with production.
In June 2020, NarniaWeb picked up on a Q&A with the manager of Matthew Aldrich who stated that the Netflix projects will be done from the perspective of kids saying:
Since the architect announcement, it’s been very quiet from Netflix as lots of planning goes into the various projects. In January 2021, Scott Stuber who heads Netflix’s film division told the New York Times that Narnia was among the projects predicted to release “beyond 2021” meaning that although we might hear of projects this year, we’re not expecting the release of any. Netflix France is one of the few Netflix accounts to consistently acknowledge the shows and movies are even still in existence with the last interaction being on March 14th, 2021.
The only update we’ve had regarding Narnia since Netflix France acknowledged its existence was via a source for NarniaWeb in August 2021, who told them that the titles are still in development. One additional thing we should mention in 2022 is that Ted Biaselli, a network executive at Netflix who is a “Director of Original Series,” lists Narnia in his LinkedIn bio, saying:
Once again, in 2022, Netflix France acknowledged development is still ongoing.
Then we got the news in November 2022 that Netflix was planning two movies and in talks for Greta Gerwig to direct both movies. Netflix has yet to officially respond to the news via the trades or publicly elsewhere. Where will The Chronicles of Narnia on Netflix start?The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe is the natural starting point for Narnia. Still, The Magician’s Nephew book serves as the prequel, which fleshes out the realm of Narnia and may make a more logical start for Netflix to kickstart the universe. You can hear more on a discussion from the Narniaweb podcast below where they speculate it may make sense to start with Magician’s Nephew this time. This would mean Netflix would adapt the books in the so-called “Harper Collins” order which would be the following:
The guys at Narniaweb also speculated that their adaptations may be slightly darker. They specifically compared them to the Anne with an E series on Netflix, which was much darker than the source material it is based on. In a chat with Georgie Henley in April 2020, who played Lucy in the Disney franchise, said she’d be receptive to featuring in the Netflix reboot but confessed it’s probably unlikely. What Narnia projects are in developmentIMDb Pro lists multiple projects in development. We can see the first three Netflix projects involving Narnia via Matthew Alrich’s profile. Here are each of the projects and where they’re reportedly in development:
Finally, in early 2020, several fan-made posters went viral on social media. For many, this was the first time many had heard Netflix is adapting the books. That’s all we know so far. There’s a lot to be announced, a lot to be excited about, and a lot to be learned. We’ll be there every step of the way to see what’s in store for Narnia on Netflix. Is Netflix doing The Chronicles of Narnia?“Netflix will develop new series and film projects based on C.S. Lewis' beloved The Chronicles of Narnia series. Under the terms of a multi-year deal between Netflix and The C.S. Lewis Company, Netflix will develop classic stories from across the Narnia universe into series and films for its members worldwide.
Is Narnia on Netflix or Disney?Netflix now owns the rights to The Chronicles of Narnia and they are developing a movie as well as a series around the franchise. Back in 2018, Amazon Studios fired the first shot across the Netflix bow.
Is Narnia on Netflix or Amazon Prime?Watch The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe | Prime Video.
Is The Chronicles of Narnia on Disney+?The first two Chronicles Of Narnia movies are already available on Disney+, because they were made by Disney, whereas the third movie was made by 20th Century Studios. Are you looking forward to seeing “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” on Disney+?
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