If the new Narnia film cycle really starts with The Magician’s Nephew, that is a striking choice. It is not the safest beginning, and it is definitely not the wardrobe-first route most people know best.
That is part of what makes it so interesting.
It starts earlier than most people expect
Most people still think of Narnia as Lucy, the wardrobe, the lamp-post, and the snow. The Magician’s Nephew pushes the beginning back. We get Digory and Polly, the rings, Charn, Jadis before Narnia, and finally the creation of Narnia itself.
It changes the tone
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has a clean, easy hook. Four children step into another world and get pulled into a fight between winter and spring. The Magician’s Nephew is stranger. There is grief in it. There is temptation in it. Charn is eerie. And the joy of creation comes only after the story has already passed through darker ground.
It gives the later stories stronger foundations
One reason many of us have wanted The Magician’s Nephew treated seriously is that it deepens so much of what comes later. The lamp-post means more. The wardrobe means more. Jadis means more. Even Professor Kirke means more once we know him first as Digory.
The risk is real too
This is not the easiest book to sell quickly. It is episodic in places, and its biggest moments depend on awe, grief, wonder, and moral weight more than straightforward action. If an adaptation gets nervous, I could easily see it over-explaining the material or piling on spectacle where the book needs space to breathe.
Why it matters
If Gerwig really is starting here, she is telling us something about the kind of Narnia she wants to make. Beginning with creation puts the emphasis on origins, order, and older magic before we ever get to the wardrobe.
That is why this choice keeps standing out to me. It is not just about chronology. It points to what kind of story she thinks Narnia is.
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