Billed as a “rock and roll” reimagining of The Magician’s Nephew—C.S. Lewis’s 1955 prequel to the Chronicles of Narnia series—Greta Gerwig’s next film is already a major cinematic event. Here’s everything you need to know.
Who’s in the cast of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew?
Actors confirmed to appear in the film include Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Daniel Craig, Meryl Streep, Denise Gough, David McKenna, Beatrice Campbell, Ciarán Hinds, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, and Susan Wokoma.
What’s the plot of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew?
The film’s official log line reads: “Academy Award–nominated filmmaker Greta Gerwig brings C. S. Lewis’s beloved story The Magician’s Nephew to the screen for the first time in a sweeping adventure that invites dreamers of all ages to experience the creation of Narnia.”
“I was a child when I first read The Magician’s Nephew, and I fell in love with the gorgeously improbable but completely brilliant concept of a cosmic lion singing the world of Narnia to life,” Gerwig has said. “I didn’t know that I would grow up to make films, but a universe built out of music is an idea that always lived in my heart. It is the honor of a lifetime to be asked to imagine it into being.”
When will Narnia be released?
The film is set to be released in theaters on February 12, 2027, and on Netflix April 2, 2027. (Early screenings in IMAX will begin on February 10.)
The details:
Emma Mackey will don icy robes to play the White Witch
On April 25, 2025, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that the Sex Education and Barbie star had snagged the coveted part of the supremely frosty and always impeccably dressed villain, so memorably brought to life by Tilda Swinton in the aughts adaptations of C.S. Lewis’s beloved books.
Meryl Streep and Daniel Craig round out the ensemble
In April 2025, the three-time Oscar winner, who made a delightfully austere Aunt March in Gerwig’s Little Women, was in talks to play Aslan, the benevolent talking lion and god-like guardian of Narnia. Meanwhile, the former Bond was reportedly being courted to play the titular sorcerer in The Magician’s Nephew. (Neither role has formally been confirmed.)
The story will explore the origins of Narnia
The Magician’s Nephew, despite being the sixth book in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia series, is actually the first chronologically, and follows two children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, who meet while playing in adjacent gardens in London at the turn of the 20th century. Soon, they find themselves in the study of Digory’s uncle, Andrew Ketterley, and when Polly touches a magic ring which causes her to be transported to another world, Andrew admits that he has been dabbling in magic. He gives Digory another ring with which he follows Polly, and their adventures across different dimensions reveal the origins of the White Witch, Narnia itself and the transportive wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
It’s not yet clear who will play Digory and Polly, or several other key roles, including Digory’s Aunt Letty, and Frank and Helen, who become the first king and queen of Narnia. Watch this space.
With Gerwig at the helm, expect the unexpected
Amy Pascal, who will be producing the new project and previously worked with Gerwig on Little Women, told Deadline in December 2024 that the film would be “a very new take on Narnia. It’s all about rock and roll.” The first stills—and first official trailer—certainly made good on that promise.
Watch the trailer below.