Mark Johnson asks: The Silver Chair or The Magician’s Nephew, which next?

Which book in the Chronicles of Narnia would you like them to produce next? Producer Mark Johnson has said that they would love to do The Silver Chair next because Will Poulter is absolutely perfect as Eustace. He also would love to do The Magician’s Nephew next, which would leave Will Pouter growing a few years older, but they’d be doing a story that he loves, much sooner. He thought he might put that question to the fans. Although this is as unofficial as it gets, let’s all vote for what we’d rather see next!

Here’s how this came about, from an interview with Examiner reporter Carla Hay:

I know you get asked this question a lot, but I’ll ask anyway: Will there be a fourth “Narnia” movie?

Johnson: Keep in mind that the two youngest Penvensie kids, Lucy and Edmund, don’t come back, so the next movie will have Eustace. We could do “The Silver Chair” or we could do “The Magician’s Nephew.”

Which book do you think fans want to see more as the fourth “Narnia” movie: “The Silver Chair” or “The Magician’s Nephew”?

Johnson: That’s a really good question. I couldn’t tell you. We should put it to the fans [to decide]. I know we have to do “The Magician’s Nephew.” I love that book! The question is: “Do we do it now and let our Eustace grow older? Or do we do ‘The Silver Chair’ and then do ‘The Magician’s Nephew’?”

So, what’ll it be, fans?

After Dawn Treader, which of these should they film next?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

72 Comments

  1. I would really like the Magicians nephew… as it shows how it all got started and would be really fun. I would really love to see the scene where Narnia itself is created. I liked all the books but I thot the Silver chair a little less exciting than all the rest. I look forward to the day I have all 7 movies in my library.

    • I like the MN better but they should definitely go with SC first because Eustace would be too old by the time they’d get to it!

    • I TOTALLY agree with you 110%
      The Silver Chair was a little more boring than the others
      And the Magicians Nephew show how it all got started.
      I also want to see how they do when Narnia first gets created!!! that would be sooooo COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  2. I really think the Silver Chair should be next then when they are all done. Do the prequil of the Magician’s Nephew. I think it will make people want to resee the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and understand it all in a new light.

  3. I think the Silver Chair because the Magician’s Nephew isn’t as exciting. Plus the rest have been in order. Won’t you ever do the Horse and His Boy? That has all the Pevensies, but they’re older.

    • Oh my gosh you dont think “the Magician’s Nephew” is’t exciting
      I love it !! I ask the same question will ya’ll make the “horse and his boy” I love that one to it is my fav one

  4. I think Silver Chair, because there’s only a few months between VDT and SC, so Eustace wouldn’t have to look THAT much older….

  5. I would like to see the silver chair, especially since it was written before the Magicians nephew. I feel that placin the Magicians nephew in between the movies would kinda of interrupt the narrative. All the books with the kids should go first, then the Magicians nephew, The Horse and his Boy and finally the Last Battle.
    And I’m slightly worried that he didn’t even mentioned the Horse and his Boy, I hope when they finish the series, they just don’t skip over it.

  6. I would love to see The Magician’s Nephew, but for fear of Will Poulter aging too quickly, I would produce The Silver Chair next.

  7. Can I vote for a dark “horse”? I think “The Horse and His Boy” is better loved than either of those, and if we’re going out of sequence, I’d rather see that than Magician’s Nephew, which isn’t really a “grabber” of the series. If the franchise is still in jeopardy, I think of the three, Horse has the most mass appeal and thus the most chance of letting us see more after that.
    The question is, realistically, is there a chance that Horse will EVER be made, or are Persian-esque villains simply impossible in today’s world?

    • Well, they got away with it in Iron Man. And if they write it the same way as in the books, with Rabadash ending up kind of an outcast and a laughingstock, I think it would work.

    • The Horse and his Boy should be left till much later as is stars Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy as fully matured adults. Maybe just before The Last Battle.

    • I agree about HHB. It is my favorite book, but the actors are too young. I think that SC should be made next. Get Will Poulter while we can. The first four books of the series, LWW, PC, VDT and SC, are of the same time line and story arc. MN and HHB go back in time and setup The Last Battle and should be filmed as close to LB as possible to help the audience understand LB. I have read that Tilde Swinton is really pushing for MN because she has a major part in it. If Fox makes enough money on VDT, maybe both SC and MN could be filmed at the same time. SC should be released first to finish that arc. Both SC and MN would have to watch their budgets because they might not be a huge box office. I think that HHB is the next tent pole release after VDT.

      While filming HHB they will have to update the references to dark skinned people. Lewis has been criticized by some for his language used to refer to dark skinned people. This must go.

  8. I don’t really see how it’s much of a debate. Silver Chair comes after Dawn Treader. LOGICALLY, they should make SC next because otherwise, people who haven’t read the books will be completely confused. They should stick with the trilogy order of books: PC, DT, and SC are a trilogy. They should stay that way for films.

    And technically, all the Pevensies but Peter appear in Horse and His Boy. Peter is mentioned, but he doesn’t make an appearance.

      • haha me too kinda… alright guys here is the order that it REALLY is supposed to be in. It goes perfectly from the beginning of narnia to the end so here it is:

        1.The Magicians Nephew
        2.The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
        3.The Horse and His Boy
        4.Prince Caspian
        5.The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
        6.The Silver Chair
        7.The Last Battle

        Am I right Paul? this is how me and my whole family read them

        • Sorry, but that’s technically incorrect. The correct order is in the order that C.S. Lewis wrote them / had them published (he finished The Last Battle before he finished The Magician’s Nephew, but still had Magician’s Nephew published first).

          1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
          2. Prince Caspian
          3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
          4. The Silver Chair
          5. The Horse and His Boy
          6. The Magician’s Nephew
          7. The Last Battle

          If you read LWW, you’ll notice that the narrator says some very funny things. If you’ve read The Magician’s Nephew first, then they don’t make sense. For instance, he speaks about Aslan as a character that we, as the audience, don’t know yet. And at the end of the book, he says that it is the end of the first adventure in Narnia.

          In fact, the order that the books are best experienced for the first time is the original publication order. Reading The Magician’s Nephew first makes everything else like a “duh” moment later on. Digory, the Wardrobe, the Lamp-post – the magic of each of these things is sort of removed by knowing the origins before you experience them for the first time in LWW. If you read LWW first, you’re with Lucy the whole time as she is just discovering each of these things, and you’re experiencing everything with her.

          • huh, good opinion… but that is the order it would go in if it had time lines… I mean aslan had to create narnia before they could visit it!

          • Right… though the original order is the preferred order of author C.S. Lewis, and your mind is good enough to put it in order automatically when you read it. 🙂

          • I’ve never understood the post-1994 readers. What do they make of the line in “The Silver Chair” regarding “The Horse and His Boy”, that “I may put it in some other book”? Or is it naive of me to assume that that line is still present in the new editions?
            There are things to bicker about fairly, like “Horse” being written before “Chair”. Obviously “The Last Battle” is a series ender. But LWW is much more primitive than the others – younger readers, etc. It is so obviously an introduction to this world. Whereas the only real joy that the reader gets out of TMN is the “Oh, that’s where that came from” factor. It really is a book designed to answer questions about Jadis, the wardrobe, the professor, etc. There’s nothing of a series opener about it.
            I personally think the renumbering is profoundly subversive. More and more of the power and authority of Aslan are revealed in each subsequent book, starting with a mere allegory “king of the whole wood” in book one. I was so floored as a child when Aslan teleported them to the Wood. It was in some ways the crowning point of the series, an affirmation of prevous hints – that Aslan’s power extends everywhere. I simply can’t imagine reading that before “He’s king of the whole wood”.

          • I honestly believe a way to prevent so much confusion to most on the right orders (by timeline, not published order) they should have just started with The Magician’s Nephew, then The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, then The Horse and His Boy, then Prince Caspian, Then Voyage of the Dawn Treader, then Silver Chair, then The Last Battle. But sadly after the film The Silver Chair, it is going to be a tough debate on if The Horse and His Boy or The Magician’s Nephew should be next. But we ALL must say The Last Battle MUST be last to film all in all.

  9. silver chair defenetly it was one of my fave books and more action it is interesting to see the witch return.

  10. I 100% want silver chair. Magicians nephew is my favorite book, but as we are talking about the movie series is logically that they should finish the Caspian trilogy. And we cant let Will grow up and wen in the future would make SC would put another actor?

  11. i think the magicians nephew would be slow compared to the other movies. i mean…we know what narnia is so it would be fun to see its beginning. but i think it would be better as a prequel maybe before the last battle.
    then again it would give Will time to mature, and alow Euctace time to mature as well to get a he-wasnt-the-same- little-snobby-midget-as-he-was-in-Narnia-3 kind of response when people walk out the theater. give the movie a more darker side to it too. kind of like they did with The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.

  12. Please please please, just tell me you will do horse and his boy!!!! i hope you do all of them..i like the idea of doing magicians nephew last. so then i guess silver chair next would be best…but then please film horse and his boy…thank you!!!!

  13. Silver Chair, that is one of my favorites. Plus Magician’s Nephew is a little slow, so if they wait longer then more technology advancements will have occured and there is so much that you can do with Magician’s Nephew graphic wise that if they wait then that movie will truly blow us away!

  14. Silver Chair definitely!!!
    I don’t know what he means about letting Will “grow.” It seemed like the Pevensies grew enough in between films. If he’s worried about “growing,” it should be the other way around. Eustace is in Silver Chair AND Last Battle after that (i hope they get to all seven), so I say, film SC before he gets too old!
    And I totally agree that they should keep going with the flow of the story. If they did MN, it wouldn’t be a sequel or “continuing of the adventure.”
    One more thing. HHB is one of my favorites! I really hope they film that one, especially since it has never been filmed. i think it would be awesome if they used Will, Anna, Skandar, and Georgie for the Pevensies grown up! 😀

  15. The magiacian’s nephew is my favourite book, because I LOVE THE WHITE WHITCH, and I LOVE TILDA SWINTON. I WANT TO SEE HER IN MN.
    I want to see MN in the big screen, but i think it’s good to produce SC first.

  16. i think either the magigians nephew or the silver chair would be next to be made into a flim but that will be depending on if they wait 2 years again to make another movie or even one year i wouldn’t be surprised to see that the silver chair has been selected as the next movie because of the Christian elements or no elements depending how you interpret it

  17. I believe The Silver Chair is the only option here, since it follows The Voyage of the Dawn Treader chronologically. And because I think that The Magician’s Nephew is a hard story to tackle and make a movie from. When I read the book, I was left quite unsatisfied, there doesn’t happen much. Don’t be offended, the story is interesting, but it’s not all that action packed. Narnia and the villian get introduced, but that’s about it. How will they make an epic movie out of this? I can only see them altering the story a lot, in order to make the movie interesting and to captivate the audience. That said, they should begin writing a script, because they will need al the time they can get.

  18. I would love to see the Magician’s Nephew next, but I think that it would probably be a better idea for them to make the Silver Chair. If they wait too long Eustace would look a lot older, and especially if they make the MN then he would prob be 4 years older by the time Silver Chair comes out. Maybe that wouldnt be a bad thing. He still has to look like he is in school though to make it coincide with how the book is. I wonder, would they bring back the same actress for the Jadis? Maybe then it would be better to make the MN first so she can still be in it, since all the other books (Silver Chair, Horse and his Boy, and Last Battle) she isnt in anyway.

  19. it should be Silver Chair, because its how the fans wanted it. Magician’s Nephew, although, its my fave, should be the sixth(are you even going to shoot Horse and His Boy?)so the exitement really goes on to the last. Fans must conceder Silver Chair.

  20. defoe should make the silver chair before the magicians nephew, although i love both stories, i think they should stick to the order that after vodt it should be sc, also will poulter will age too much if they make the magicain’s nephew first.

  21. We want Eustae to age, but not much, as far as Silver Chair goes. If they are planning on doing the entire series, both Last Battle and Magician’s Nephew are going to be a huge challenge to re-create. The characters in Magician’s Nephew are flexible. They only show up young in one book, so therefore one doesn’t have to worry about when they show up or how old they get. We don’t nessicarily have that luxury with SC.

  22. Silver Chair then before you go to film the Last Battle film The Magicians Nephew and The Horse and His Boy. You can’t end a world without telling all it’s stories first.

  23. although personally i like MN more than SC, to me what matters most is that they don’t do crazy things with the actors. i would rather wait longer for MN than have SC be with teenagers playing gradeschool kids.

    i had almost forgot about H&HB. i like that one a lot too. however, since the pevensies are the only characters in in that we’ve already seen, and they are supposed to be adults at that point anyway, i think that one can wait as well.

    there is one thing that will be kind of weird for H&HB. technically they have already shown us adult pevensies at the end of LWW. i mean, i would rather see anna, skandar and georgie, but it is kind of funny.

  24. I think that, for continuity reasons, the Silver Chair should be made first. After seeing Dawn Treader, audiences will want to see more of Eustace, and I for one can’t wait for the introduction of Jill. She is a very strong female character in the series, and that is one thing that the franchise will need after Lucy leaves (for a while :).

  25. I REALLY LOVE the Magicians Nephew, my favorite one(s)is/are the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Magicans Nephew, The Last Battle, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, Silver Chair. But I really think they should do ‘The Horse anf his Boy’ before Will, Anna, Skander and Georgie get to old, they should have done it before they did ‘Prince Caspian’!
    I didn’t really like the ‘Silver Chair’ they were underground almost the whole story:(:(:(
    But I think they should do them like this..

    Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
    The Horse and his Boy
    Prince Caspian
    Voyage of the Dawn Treader
    Silver Chair
    Magicians Nephew
    Last Battle

    That is how they should have been done.
    But I’m going to vote The Horse and His Boy and then Magicians Nephew and then Silver Chair.

  26. Yes, definetly they need to do “The Silver Chair” after “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”. Why? Well, because it is the very NEXT in the series and also, it could throw some people off if they made “The Magician’s Nephew” next because that would be taking you WAY back to the beginning of the series.. that might be confusing to some. Also, it would make Will Poulter look ALOT older in “The Silver Chair”. And by my observations, votes on “The Silver Chair” being next is totally outbeating “The Magician’s Nephew”. So yes to the main answer, I 100% say the next film should be “The Silver Chair”. Woot Narnia love forever!

  27. MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It just needs to be that one. It “feels” more like Narnia than any of them I am afraid that if they don’t make it now they never will. Actually I want The Horse and His Boy more than any of them…but that’s not an option 😉 .
    This is a good sign if they are talking about making more!

  28. Why don’t they just film them both at the same time. I know it’s been done before. We need the Magician’s Nephew, but we also need a young Eustace in the Silver Chair. I wish the first movie that came out had been the Magician’s Nephew because we really do need to know where the wardrobe and the lampost came from.

    • Filming two movies at the same time is a challenge when they’re they same storyline. Filming two vastly different movies at the same time that are part of the same series would be absolutely insane. Especially with the same producers needing to be on set, as well as many of the same creative people.

  29. I am definitely thinking they should make the silver chair next. thats my favorite book besides the dawn treader. It was only boring because C. S. Lewis took the time to describe details instead of filling the book with non-stop action. I like the way it was written, and you have to remember that all those details will happen on film in a matter of seconds and the action will take longer. It could potentially be one of the best films yet, in my opinion.

  30. Yeah. The Silver Chair should be next. I’m not so sure about Magician’s Nephew and The Horse and His Boy. I have an idea that they don’t have to be filmed/released in the same order. Like the Star Wars series. It wasn’t made in the correct order. Just a thought but IF they could do that then they should film it in this order: Silver Chair, The Last Battle, Magician’s Nephew, and The Horse and His Boy. Remember, this is just a crazy idea I came up with.

    • you would have to do it magicians nephew then the last battle bc Polly and digory r in the last battle and some ppl would be lost if they randomly showed up even if he was the professor in TLTWATW.

    • Totally agree!! I want the see The Last Battle made into a movie. Magician’s Nephew and The Horse and His Boy do not really have an age factor in them since the producers can use whichever actors they feel is right when the time comes. 😀

  31. I think they should contine with the order they started in … therefore do the Silver Chair first and have Eustace and Jill in it … and then when we’ve seen all the ones that involve the human kids going into Narnia… then they should make the MN so evryone can see how Narnia Was created and how everything started ^^ 😀
    i want puddelglum tooo!!!

  32. I think they should do Magicians Nephew the very last,just because it would be kinda weird to go from the middle of the series to the beginning of Narnia. Plus that ones the most magic and awesome,so I personally think it would be well worth the wait.

  33. .. uhm, if i’m the one who’d deside, i’d pick the Magician’s Nephew, but since the casts’ faces won’t last young, i think they’ll make the Silver Chair next

  34. I really think they should make The Silver Chair first because if they make The Magicians Nephew before The Silver Chair then Eustance will get too old. And your forgeting there will most likely be a gap between The Silver Chair and The Last Battle which will also make Eustance and Jill older than they should be. Plus i also beleive they should make The Magicians Nephew right before The Last Battle because it would be nice to show how Narnia was created before it is destroyed. Also The Last Battle should be the series ender because it is how C.S. Lewis ended the series. Even though I forgot to include The Horse and His Boy I hope they do indeed make it into a movie!!!!

  35. I think Silver Chair since it will still have Eustace and I think it is next in line in order of publication. I am not sure, but it feels like this is the next one in line. Correct me otherwise. All in all Silver Chair to be next in line.

    • Remember that in LB everyone dies. Some go to heaven; some do not. Hard to make a believable Narnia movie after LB with all the characters dead. I think that there is a possible story arc after LB, but Lewis did not write it. I do agree that the last chapters of LB are some of the most beautiful and spiritual chapters ever written. Should make a great movie.

  36. Okay i would just like to say I think that they should do the SC next.And then do MN and i would also like to say that i read some comments about how MN is boring.Well it is true that it does not of all the action of all the other books.But if you really think about the story how I think of it you will find that it is truly amazing it is the creation of the land that C.S.Lewis created that blew our minds away.

  37. The Magician’s Nephew is THE best Narnia book. I really want them to make that into a movie first! It’s the whole beginning of Narnia so it should really come first. Logical!

  38. I think The Silver Chair should totally be next. If the actor is good now, why wait? But then, would that mean they have to make The Last Battle right after that??–Which is, by the way, my absolute most favorite book of the series. 🙂

  39. I would LOVE to see the magicians nephew, that is one of my favorite books in the series. I think to actually see the scene where narnia is created would be amazing!

  40. What gonna come the 4th Narnia Movie?
    I think the 4th Narnia would be the Silver Chair because I wanted to see the movie, because, it needs to in publication order. I want to find out about Eustace to see if he visit to Narnia again and this time Jill is her first time.
    Are you doing all the seven Narnia Films?
    And Thank you!

  41. You have to do the Silver Chair first. Yes the Magicians Nephew is awesome and very epic, but you rist having to find a replacement for Will Poulter as Eustace!
    Do the Silver Chair and then the Magicians Nephew. And then do the Horse and His Boy bring back the original actors as the Pevensie Children! Please!

Comments are closed.