The Lion, the Witch, and the COVID-19 Pandemic

A few years ago, Netflix acquired the rights to adapt all seven Chronicles of Narnia books.

In less than a year, the first movie from this deal will release in theaters—Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew.

For fans of the Narnia books, this is a big deal. It’ll be the first time the first chronological book is adapted for the screen, and it’ll be the first time in over fifteen years that we’ve seen a new Narnia movie.

As I wait and hope for it to be great—while nervous that it won’t—I have some predictions about what we might be seeing from Netflix’s Narnia universe after The Magician’s Nephew gets us started.

1: The Pevensies will be locked down for COVID.

This is a wild prediction I’ve seen nowhere else, and I know it might be crazy, but if I’m right, I want it to be documented well before the movies release.

You know how The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe takes place during World War II? I think the new version will be set during the pandemic.

What’s my reasoning?

It’s all about the timeline. Some early reports about Greta Gerwig’s Magician’s Nephew movie is that the timeline appears to be pushed forward to the 1950s. This is based on costumes and location information from the set. Though it hasn’t been officially confirmed, it does appear that they are changing the timeline for the entire series.

Fans might remember that The Magician’s Nephew takes place in the late 1800s with the professor as a kid stepping up as a main character.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe famously takes place during World War II, with the Pevensie children sent to live with the professor to escape the air raids in London.

It appears that the new adaptations are going modern.

The Magician’s Nephew is being described as aesthetically “rock and roll,” and though many have debated what that exactly means, I think it’s clear that Gerwig is aiming for the movie to be fun, spirited, and different. Regardless—and whether or not it features actual rock ‘n’ roll music—it is looking more and more certain that the movie will take place far later than the original book.

This means that for Diggory to grow up to become the professor, there’s only so many options that makes sense to place The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Though it is possible that they would set it in a not-newsworthy time, and the kids are just visiting the professor for the summer, I think that is unlikely.

The most tumultuous time we faced in recent years in the world is the COVID-19 pandemic. The world represented for CS Lewis a sort of shared trauma for the world, and it was something that a lot of people could relate to.

The pandemic is actually a clever way to give a modern audience that same kind of feeling, because we all have different feelings and associations with how the pandemic progressed and with what we experienced at the time. No matter where someone lands politically, it still can represent a sort of shared trauma.

This could also be a bold way to create a mostly faithful adaptation that also distances itself from previous adaptations. With a timeline shift, it would show that the Netflix Narnia series is not trying to simply copy what was done before with the Walden media trilogy. Whether this innovation will be well received or if it will backfire because it’s not close enough to the book, only time will tell.

I think most agree that the 2005 film is a near-perfect adaptation. If there’s a way to faithfully tell the story without relying on copying what came before, this could be a clever risk.

Speaking of the Walden Media movies…

2: The actors from the old movies will return.

This prediction might just be wishful thinking, but it also makes sense. I think we’re going to see the actors from the original movies, specifically that four actors who played Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.

I think we’re going to see them as a surprise cameo at the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when we see the kids grown-up before they return through the wardrobe.

Considering how Netflix has the rights for both movies and TV series, I also think we could see the adult Pevensies in a spinoff series about their adventures in Narnia at the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

This could even lead to either a movie or TV adaptation for The Horse and His Boy, and I definitely think we would see the adult Susan, Edmund, and Lucy actors portray those same characters in that story.

Speaking of TV…

3: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be a series, not a movie

Though all of the Narnia books are technically short enough that they should be able to be adopted into movies, the last Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie was not well received.

Here’s the deal: I love The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It’s my favorite book in the series if I had to pick one.

The movie version that came out in 2010 (also the last Narnia movie that’s been in theaters) was a major disappointment.

One major consideration for this installment is that even more than any of the other novels, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is episodic. The movie version decided to add things to it to make a more unified narrative, but the story is much better in its episodic form.

Maybe this is another wish and not a true prediction, but I hope they go the TV series route to avoid the pitfalls that muddled the last attempt.

On a sidenote: even though it wasn’t great, if you haven’t seen The Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie, you should check it out. Though it was far from perfect, it did give us Eustace played by Will Poulter, and he did an amazing job in the role.

That’s it! Those are my three major predictions as of now, months before the first movie releases.

Are you looking forward to Netflix‘s attempt at the Narnia universe? Do you have any predictions of your own?

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