Joe Johnston is gearing up to shoot the next Narnia film in Winter 2018. It’s going to be his final film as a director, as he is planning to retire after this film is complete. According to an interview, they’re hoping to film in New Zealand, on the south island, with pre-production starting around July of 2018. If all of this comes to pass, they’ll be filming sometime around December, and film into early 2019. (My estimate is a release date sometime around December 2019, at this point. But I’ve reached out for more clarity related to filming.)
Johnston mentions that they’ll be filming during New Zealand’s Summer, which adds up, as their summer is our winter. He goes on to say that it’ll take a year for special effects work to be done, which would put us, at the earliest, at a December 2019 release date for the fourth Narnia film.
Casting will likely begin in early 2018 as well.
They’re planning to have this film be the start of something new, with no connections to the other three films that have come before it. Based on that, I’m expecting new music themes, a new feel to Narnia, and a new voice for Aslan.
They’ll be looking for a new kid to take on the role of Eustace, as Will Poulter has certainly aged out of it by now. (He’ll be nearly a decade older than he was when they shot The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.) This is something that I, like many of you, dislike in movies, but it has happened with some fairly big roles in the past. In the Marvel films, Rhodes was replaced before Iron Man 2, and they even addressed it with the dialog. Terrance Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle, and when he first shows up, this exchange takes place:
Tony Stark: I didn’t expect to see you here…
Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes: Well, it’s me, and I’m here, so get over it and move on!
There have also been many James Bond actors.
I’m not saying that, because it’s been done before, we should just accept it and move on. I know it’ll be hard. Will Poulter did a phenomenal job in the role. But we’ll need to accept that sometimes change is inevitable. Let’s give whomever takes the role on a chance to make it his own. Hopefully he’ll bring the character to life in a new way.
