After seven years of pre-production NETFLIX has finally begun filming a revolutionary re-imagining of The Chronicles of Narnia set in the ’50s. The surprising change from the book’s 1900 setting has wide ranging ramifications to the thematic context of the story and a cascade of changes that leave no aspect unaltered including the iconic lamp-post. Amid this upheaval and a controversial casting rumor that has the fan community roaring for an authentic Aslan voice, the era of instant social media has the Internet buzzing with leaked photos and videos. The first look at Jadis and Digory’s stunt doubles racing the horse Strawberry through London gives an early glimpse at potential looks of the characters through the help of generative AI visualizations. The most comprehensive documentation of the location shooting comes from UnBoxPHD who has captured photos and videos from the outdoor filming at Bank Station (Asatryan, 2025a; UnBoxPHD, 2025a; Moore, 2025).
Location Shooting Photos:
The pictures wonderfully capture a magical of a beautiful bygone era, even if it is not the same bygone era of C.S. Lewis’ childhood. There was a thrilling feeling from watching two forty second YouTube clips with video footage of the bustling activity of vintage motorcars, costumed extras, and the star David McKenna himself. To better capture the brilliant feeling of the opening of a Narnia Movie I have edited a video that sets the sights and sounds of Greta Gerwig’s movie production to the timeless magnificance of Focus on the Family Radio Theater (Lewis, 1999). To supplement the video footage the three unaltered still images shown above were animated using generative AI from XAI Grok Imagine and ByteDance Capcut. I hope you enjoy the result which shows David McKenna in a collared uniform just like C.S. Lewis described (Lewis, 1955a; Lewis, 1999). In the book Digory and Polly meet in a residential garden (Lewis, 1955a; Lewis, 1999), but in these location filming clips it is easy to imagine them meeting in a more urban setting or perhaps they are out and about in London in response to the horseback rampage clip. Movies are typically filmed out of sequence, so the first day of shooting doesn’t necessarily correspond to the opening scene. In the clip below the best photos and videos are combined in one potential look at how the opening of The Magician’s Nephew might feel based on leaked footage.
Clip:
Location Filming Videos:
What do you think of this creative glimpse into the world of The Magician’s Nephew? If you are hungry for more set footage be sure to take a look at the equine footage featuring Jadis and Digory’s stunt doubles.
References:
Asatryan, T. (2025). David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell Cast As Young Leads in Netflix’s ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’. Retrieved August 13, 2025 from https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/david-mckenna-and-beatrice-campbell-cast-as-young-leads-in-netflixs-narnia-movie/
Lewis, C.S. (1955). The Magician’s Nephew. HarperCollins
Lewis, C.S. (1999). The Magician’s Nephew [Audiobook]. Focus on the Family Radio Theatre
Moore, K. (2025). Greta Gerwig’s Netflix Narnia Movie Starts Filming in London – First Look Photos. Retrieved August 13, 2025 from https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/greta-gerwigs-netflix-narnia-movie-starts-filming-in-london-first-look-photos/
UnBoxPHD (2025). Greta Gerwig’s Narnia – THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW Filming in London. Retrieved August 20, 2025 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cuTP5MRtw0
UnBoxPHD (2025). Netflix’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew FILMING in LONDON. Retrieved August 20, 2025 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXEnbHUYWhY
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