Rumor has it that Narnia is going to be moving to a new platform and in a new format. In addition to an article from a German website and another place (mentioned below), we heard from a reliable source, who had heard something similar in the last month. While this source is not officially connected to the project, it is one we trust completely based on accurate information provided in the past. However, let’s be clear, nothing official has been announced and we’ll post an update if or when an official announcement is made, whether The Silver Chair goes into active production as a feature film, or Netflix is announced as the official destination. Update: It’s true. Netflix is developing Narnia movies and series.
That said, if the information from our source turns out to be what comes to pass, instead of a feature film, a series of shows on TV might happen. This reminds us of the BBC versions from the late 1980s; before the first four books (which were sometimes word for word adaptations, and sometimes they weren’t). were repackaged to movie length releases, they were presented as 18 episodes.
This leads us to another question.
Is this still The Silver Chair, or a full reboot?
This is something we don’t know yet. They have a script for a feature film adaptation of The Silver Chair, but if they’re going to be doing a completely new format, it could mean taking everything in a new direction, starting over. Does this mean going back to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or going to The Magician’s Nephew? It could also pick up with The Silver Chair, as a few years worth of development has already happened.
What about The Silver Chair movie?
We know that David Magee wrote a script for what is/was to be the 4th Chronicles of Narnia film, The Silver Chair. We also know that Joe Johnston was signed to direct it as his final film before he retires. The last we heard about Johnston is that he directed pick-ups for The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.
We also know that the film was supposed to shoot sometime in “winter 2018” in New Zealand. That time-frame is a bit confusing. Did they mean New Zealand winter? Did they mean the actual season of winter (in which case, it’s either already over, or it’s still coming up)? In 2018, the winter season in the US is from December 21, 2018 to March 20, 2019. The winter season in New Zealand started on June 21 and ends on September 23.
There has not been a single casting announcement apart from a rumor about Millie Bobby Brown.
The film was in development with Sony Pictures, eOne, Mark Gordon Productions and the C.S. Lewis Company. eOne has recently had a lot of success with Netflix, and merged their film and tv divisions back in 2017.
All of this leads us to wonder what is actually happening with the motion picture adaptation. Sometimes films like this just get delayed for various reasons. Could this be the reason we haven’t heard anything more about this movie for a few months? Was a decision made to change direction?
Will The Silver Chair still be the next Narnia adaptation?
Maybe. If The Silver Chair is still going to be the next Narnia book adapted, and there’s a chance that it will be, a lot of things will probably happen. For one, it might mean a new director, or a few directors, if the TV series becomes reality. It would also mean new scripts would be needed. Scripts for feature films and television are written differently. The same writer could remain on board, but they’ve got a lot of work to do to restructure the story from a three act film into multiple three act episodes. And that’s if they decide to follow classic story structure.
Is Narnia headed to Netflix?
According to a couple of places, yes, but take this with a grain of salt for now, until an official announcement is made. According to a newsletter called The Ankler from Richard Rushfield, “eOne and Netflix have concluded a deal on the production of a “The Chronicles of Narnia” series.” The direct quote comes from an email newsletter that is only available to paid subsribers.
Considering eOne’s connection with Netflix, this is the most likely OTT streaming service that a Narnia TV series would land. The other OTT services are unlikely, but include Hulu, YouTube Premium, Disney’s still unnamed service, Amazon Prime and Apple.
Netflix has been spending huge amounts of money on properties for all age groups in recent years, only to increase that spend in the last couple of years. One similar property was recently announced: A new live-action series adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Netflix has also created several animated series including Trollhunters, She-ra and the Princesses of Power, Spirit: Riding Free and Voltron: Legendary Defender.
What’s the bottom line?
Rumors of Narnia coming to Netflix in a series format, rather than feature-length, are fairly strong, but not (yet?) official. Update: It’s Official! And it’s going to be both feature-length films and series.
P.S. It’s a bit ironic that we used this as one of our April Fool’s Day jokes in the past. But that’s partially because it’s something we would like to see happen.
Interesting…if for some reason the tv series thing turns out to be false, I don’t really think there is much cause to worry about the film being released. Joe Johnston in all probability meant the northern hemisphere Winter of 2018 since he did not specify “new zealand winter”. He is from the U.S. and probably realizes most fans think of winter as northern hemisphere winter, and so I think he would have realized that it would confuse people more if he said “Winter” meaning new zealand winter without specifying that. That said, seems like there is a lot of buzz about this tv series so who knows…
Looks like the rumor turned out to be true. However, they’re doing both movies and TV shows. So this could make our April Fool’s Joke into a reality, if The Silver Chair is still going to be a film, and isn’t turned into a series.