Netflix unveils psychedelic trailer for Greta Gerwig's 'Narnia: The Magician's Nephew'

Gerwig could have chosen almost any project after "Barbie" took in nearly $1.5 billion at the box office in 2023, Ars Technica reported, and she chose the Narnia film for Netflix. The book is the sixth novel in "The Chronicles of Narnia" series by publication order. Gerwig has said little about the film publicly beyond noting that she was inspired by David Bowie in the 1960s, though she has said it would not be a musical.

Lewis published the first book in the series, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," in 1950 and did not initially plan to write more Narnia adventures, according to the report. An acquaintance then asked him how the London lamppost ended up in the middle of Narnia's woodland, and Lewis was intrigued enough by the question to begin a prequel, "The Magician's Nephew," in order to answer it. He found the book difficult to finish and wrote four other Narnia books before completing "The Magician's Nephew" in 1955.

The Chronicles of Narnia has been adapted several times in various media, most recently in an early-2000s film franchise that covered the first three novels. Those films showed diminishing returns, and by 2011 the film rights had expired. There were initial plans to adapt the fourth novel, "The Silver Chair."