Almost six years after it announced that it had acquired the rights to C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia books, Netflix is set to begin shooting the first film of the series in 2024.

The online streaming service confirmed in July 2023 that co-writer and director of box office Barbie, Greta Gerwig, will direct at least two of the movies.

Gerwig: “Terrified, because I have much reverence for Narnia”

Right after the announcement of her involvement in the films, Gerwig said she was “terrified of it, which feels like a good place to start. I think when I am scared, it is always a good sign”.

“The two big books of my childhood were ‘Little Women’ and the ‘Narnia’ books, so I had that instant excitement that comes from trying to tackle something that has shaped me”, she added.

In a recent interview with BBC 4 radio, the film-maker reiterated that she is still “slightly in the place of terror because I really do have much reverence for Narnia”.

“As a non-British person, I feel a particular sense of wanting to do it correctly… it’s like when Americans do Shakespeare, there is a slight feeling of reverence and as if maybe we should treat it with extra care”, underlined Gerwig.

Netflix CEO: “The films will be bigger and bolder”

Speaking with Time magazine, Netflix’s CEO, Ted Sarandos, defined Gerwig as “an incredible visionary, whose take was clear when they first began talking about Narnia” .

“The films won’t be counter to how the audience may have imagined those worlds, but will be bigger and bolder than they thought”, added Sarandos.

He also said her work “is rooted in faith, much like Lewis’ original material”.

Netflix film chief, Scott Stuber, also pointed out that Gerwig “grew up in a Christian background. The C.S. Lewis books are very much based in Christianity”, so that “it was just a great opportunity to be in business with her”

“I am so thrilled that she is working on it with us. She’s just an incredible talent”, he told entertainment magazine Variety.

‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’

Netflix has plans to adapt the seven books of The Chronicles of Narnia, starting with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which “obviously, it is is kind of the preeminent one”, said Stuber.

“But there is such an interesting narrative form to the Narnia series if you read all of them. She is working on it now with producers Amy Pascal and Mark Gordon, trying to figure out how they can break the whole arc of all of it”, explained the Netflix film chief.

For Gerwig, the Narnia books “are connected to the folklore and fairy stories of England, but are a combination of different traditions”.

“I am interested in embracing the paradox of the worlds that Lewis created, because that is what is so compelling about them”, she told Time magazine.

Not the first

The Netflix adaptation of Lewis' books for film and television isn't the first one.

Between 2005 and 2010, Disney released movie adaptations of three of the Narnia books, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader.

Eartlier, the BBC adapted The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe for series in 1988.