The first trailer for Netflix’s The Magician’s Nephew has arrived, giving us all a closer look at director Greta Gerwig’s follow-up to 2023’s Barbie. And apart from also being a bold, subversive take on an iconic property, the two movies could scarcely be more different. It’s also clear that Netflix is going in a vastly different direction with the Narnia franchise compared to previous live-action movies.
And as far as I’m concerned, that’s fantastic. Before today, I wasn’t particularly enthralled with the idea of Gerwig rebooting Narnia. But having watched the trailer, that iconic Shaquille O’Neal meme comes to mind. I owe you an apology, Greta; I wasn’t really familiar with your game.
Mind you, my relative disinterest in Gerwig’s Narnia reboot was never a reflection of the director herself. She’s easily one of the brightest new voices in the film scene today. She’s proven she can handle semi-autobiographical indie comedies like Frances Ha and Lady Bird just as well as she does big-budget blockbusters like Barbie. Like Ryan Coogler, she’s that rare combination of a talented creator with compelling stories to tell and someone who can actually navigate the tumultuous studio system without her voice being drowned out.
It’s precisely because Gerwig is such an important voice in the industry that I found the Narnia news a little disappointing. The world is Gerwig’s oyster after the massive success of Barbie. She can pretty much tackle anything she wants. So why reboot the Narnia series of all things? Why tackle another studio project rather than seek out and develop the next Lady Bird?
Granted, a big part of my problem here is my own lack of attachment to the Narnia franchise itself. I’ve never been able to connect with Narnia in either book or movie form. It’s just always felt too stuffy and wrapped up in religious allegory for my tastes. Strangely, that’s never stopped me from becoming obsessed with Lev Grossman’s Magicians books, which basically pose the question, “What if you combined Hogwarts and Narnia and populated them with horny young adults?”
So I’ll admit my previous disinterest in The Magician’s Nephew is based partly on selfish reasons. I may not have found much to love in these books, but that doesn’t mean the same is true for Gerwig. If she felt compelled to make this her next big film project after Barbie, clearly there was a reason for that.
And having now seen the trailer, it’s obvious that Gerwig does indeed see something powerful in the source material. The trailer makes a huge, bold statement. It immediately establishes just how different this reboot is from any Narnia project that’s come before. It immediately cuts to the heart of what I think is the fundamental appeal of Narnia (and The Magicians, for that matter) - that desire for ordinary youngsters to escape their humdrum world and find something better on the other side.
Visually, the trailer is a real feast for the eyes. There’s color galore, and no shortage of psychedelic fantasy imagery. The whole thing looks very much like a trippy painting someone would have slapped on the side of a dilapidated van in 1978. It’s just f***ing cool in a way I never would have associated with the Narnia franchise. I immediately want to see this movie, regardless of whatever 100-year-old fantasy franchise it may or may not be associated with.
And you can’t discount the power of a good Led Zeppelin tune. As we saw from past trailers like 2011’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, blasting out Zeppelin on top of a frenetic montage of imagery is like a cheat code to win over jaded middle-aged moviegoers like myself. Plus, you have to enjoy the irony of having the notoriously Lord of the Rings-obsessed rock band serving as the soundtrack for a Narnia movie instead.
I fully suspect some hardcore Narnia lovers will take umbrage at the trailer. It’s clear that Gerwig isn’t opting for a 100% book-faithful adaptation here. But that’s exactly why I‘m so intrigued by what we’re seeing. Gerwig is forgoing strict accuracy in favor of building a take that speaks to her and her particular sensibilities. It seems likely she’s taking the opportunity to use this franchise to tell a very Greta Gerwig-type story, just as she did with Barbie and Little Women in years past.
Before today, I didn’t particularly want a new Narnia movie. But the trailer is proof of just how wrong and misguided I was. This film has gone from being barely a blip on my radar to one of my most anticipated films of 2027. Kudos, Ms. Gerwig.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.