Did Walden Media Leave the Narnia Franchise? No.

Many have been e-mailing, asking if we had seen the stories that broke yesterday that claimed Walden Media had decided not to pick up their option for the Narnia franchise.  Those reports were posted prematurely.  I can report that negotiations on the next film are ongoing and that Walden Media, Twentieth Century Fox and the C.S. Lewis Estate are still very much discussing the next films in the Narnia franchise.  This is a story that we’ve known since April and were the first to learn about, but after discussing with a few producers and the webmasters of the other two fan sites, we decided not to report it because things were actually still as they had been… in negotiations… and Walden Media has responded the same way both times: they’re still hopeful to make more Narnia films.

There is nothing more to say that wouldn’t be conjecture at this point.  I have been in contact with a couple of the producers from the film series, however, and they mention that negotiations can be both very long and very frustrating at times, but that these things are completely normal in the film industry.

One thing that we got from Walden Media is that nothing has been confirmed at this point.  There’s been no final yes or no. The one thing that is the more certain about the future of the franchise, is that if Walden Media does continue, the film they make will most likely be The Magician’s Nephew.

Where do we go from here?  We wait until we have the final word on the future of the franchise, and we stay out of it.  (Personally, I feel that the films have all been wonderful, and I’ve replaced the BBC versions almost entirely, with hopes to replace the BBC Silver Chair in my collection sooner rather than later, not that I watch the movies very often.)  That said, we have another few films to be excited for that we know are in the works: a C.S. Lewis movie and The Hobbit films!