Are you ready to go back to Narnia? It might be a little more rock n’ roll than you remember. We got our first peek at Aslan yesterday (voiced by Meryl Streep), and Empire Magazine has dropped a handful of new images from Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, which gives us a look at Daniel Craig’s Uncle Andrew, Emma Mackey’s Jadis, and more.
Uncle Andrew is obsessed with magic, and it’s his actions that set off the events of the movie. “I’d like to say that his intentions are good, but I’m not sure that they are,” Craig told Empire. “It’s not to say that he’s cruel and mean and awful. He gets overexcited about what could be, and therefore overlooks the people around him and the consequences of what he’s doing.“
Jadis, who becomes known as the White Witch, has been trapped in the realm of Charn for years…until she’s awakened by Digory (David McKenna) and Polly (Beatrice Campbell). She follows them back to London, set in the 1950s rather than the novel’s early 1900s, and immediately tries to take over.
“We had to have that duality of fun, which is what the kids are seeing — [a] shiny, exciting person — but also, ‘Wow, you’re a little bit scary, and I don’t really know what foot to dance on with you’,” Mackey explained. “It was very shiny and exciting, but also comfortable and ready for war.“
You’ll notice that the film has a different style from the previous Narnia movies, and Gerwig explained that she took inspiration from the British rock music scene of the ’60s and ’70s.
“David Bowie saved my life. Paul McCartney saved my life. David Gilmour saved my life. Pete Townshend saved my life. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant…” she said. “When I heard their music, I had this deep sense of [thinking], ‘You’re gonna be okay.’… Narnia is literally a world made out of music. It is a world sung to life by Aslan, and rock ’n’ roll to me felt like a world made out of music.“
Sneak previews in IMAX will begin on February 10, with the global wide release two days later, and the film will drop on Netflix on April 2, 2027. It’s the first Netflix movie to get such a wide release.
In a statement, an IMAX rep said, “From the outset, we got involved with Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew to support Greta Gerwig and see her vision realized to the fullest in IMAX. The film’s delay until 2027 creates an opportunity to give Narnia an expanded, wide release with a full theatrical window; we support Greta and Netflix in pursuing that opportunity and are pleased IMAX could help facilitate. We hope as many people in as many places as possible can experience what Greta is creating with this special film — particularly in its exclusive debut in IMAX, as it was meant to be seen.“