As Netflix debuted the first trailer this week for Greta Gerwig‘s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, fans were treated to an iconic needle drop.
Gerwig recently explained how she was able to convince Led Zeppelin to let her license “Stairway to Heaven” for the feature adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ prequel book, after the band has notoriously shot down all previous requests to feature the 1971 song on screen.
“I showed them and I talked to them, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, and I was so moved that they allowed me to use the song,” Gerwig told Stephen Colbert at a Q&A. “They did it because they saw the heart of the story in the film and they too love C.S. Lewis, and they have a reverence for his work. The whole thing was very fortuitous. But I’m so happy that it got to be this song.”
Gerwig explained that the song was “exactly the story” of the movie. “It’s an epic song. It’s an amazing song. It’s a narrative. It’s about a spiritual journey,” she said.
“It’s about the true path of enlightenment and spirituality, and then this path of false idols and the wrong roads you can go down,” added Gerwig. “And I was like, ‘This is exactly the story of this movie.’ It really is a spiritual quest and a spiritual journey, so to me, this was the song that made sense to introduce this into the world. But this song, they had not let it be used in anything.”
Previous failed attempts to license “Stairway to Heaven” include a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, Almost Famous (2000) and last year’s Stranger Things finale, while Mike Myers poked fun at the band’s protectiveness of the track in a scene from Wayne’s World (1992).
Premiering Feb. 12, 2027 in Imax before its April 2 Netflix debut, Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew follows two children Digory (David McKenna) and Polly (Beatrice Campbell) as they explore the office of Digory’s Uncle Andrew (Daniel Craig) and end up in a magical wood filled with pools that lead to other worlds. One pool takes them to a dead city, where they awaken its queen (Emma Mackey) who exterminated its population, accidentally setting her loose on London.