Tron 4: Magician's Nephew

I could probably get over the boots and dress (given time), but the metal shoulder pad?? and vambrace?? (okay, per google, upper arm armor is a "rerebrace") are just far too over the top. My first thought was that they could be protective gear for the stuntslady, but it's so shiny and metallic that it has got to be part of the costume. They hid the helmets, after all.

It does seem very likely this is the outfit she'll arrive in Narnia wearing, which is tragic, but I can still hope it's not her Charn outfit but one she stole from a VERY trendy shop in London.

In the comments section of Narniaweb's article about the stunt double photos, people were joking about Jadis taking the costume from a circus clown or something, thinking it's what regal, intimidating people wear in England. Honestly...that might work. It could be really funny and fit in with the somewhat humorous tone of the Jadis-in-London parts of the book. Or maybe I'm just embracing the possibility since it's the only way I can imagine to justify that lousy costume. 

The first thought I had when I saw the costume was that it's a homage to the Paco Rabanne inspired outfits used in the 1967 SF film Barbarella. (Not gonna link because it's naughty movie.) Paco Rabanne was an influential fashion designer who specialized in high fashion, pop-art outfits made of linked metal and plastic. Not able to be cleaned normally, obviously.

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2023/feb/07/paco-rabanne-best-looks-in-pictures

That said, the way the extras are dressed, it seems like it's for a distance shot where the finer details wouldn't be visible. So the riding costume here would be different from the close up one which might likely fall off or be damaged during a vigorous ride on a horse.

Of course, you could say this 1960s look is out of place for the 1950s, or even the 1900s. But the look of it would be what people OF the 1950s would think a futuristic outfit would look like. I think Greta Gerwig is playing around with that aesthetic, that is, what Lewis himself might have had in mind when he wrote MN in the 1950s. Remember that Lewis was a big SF fan and read a lot of what would consider pulp fiction, the kind that had the fantastic, and often trashy and suggestive, covers. Such an outfit that Jadis wears in the pic might have come from the cover of one of those books. Taken in this context, the outfit makes sense and I'm stoked to see what else they do with the setting. Charn might be not an ancient empire but a pseudo-futuristic one.

I have to say the pic looks like it got Strawberry's coloration right, if that is Strawberry! So many illustrators have depicted him as white, like the classic version of Pegasus.

Don't know if it was here or on Reddit, but a poster was saying a horse carriage in 1950s London doesn't make sense. Well of course it does. There were tourist rides in Hyde Park. Also some British police not to mention Royal Guards were mounted on horses.

Posted by: @cobalt-jade

Of course, you could say this 1960s look is out of place for the 1950s, or even the 1900s. But the look of it would be what people OF the 1950s would think a futuristic outfit would look like. I think Greta Gerwig is playing around with that aesthetic, that is, what Lewis himself might have had in mind when he wrote MN in the 1950s. Remember that Lewis was a big SF fan and read a lot of what would consider pulp fiction, the kind that had the fantastic, and often trashy and suggestive, covers. Such an outfit that Jadis wears in the pic might have come from the cover of one of those books. Taken in this context, the outfit makes sense and I'm stoked to see what else they do with the setting. Charn might be not an ancient empire but a pseudo-futuristic one.

I was just thinking something along these lines earlier today — that maybe they are deliberately going to make not only Jadis, but also Charn, look like something out of a cheesy classic sci-fi movie. It wouldn't be out of keeping with the 1950s setting that this movie apparently has. It might even tie in with the fact that in our world in 1955, the possible means of destroying the entire world has now been discovered (and used in a limited way, of course, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki only 10 years earlier) — and in Charn, the equivalent (the Deplorable Word) has already been used to annihilate everything. Which could suggest that Charn should look something like the possible future of our own world, in an almost literal sense, with retro-futuristic space age costumes and aesthetics.

If that's the way they're going with this, I can understand the reasoning. I can't say I like it, or the idea of setting the this-world scenes in the 1950s in general; I'm concerned that they're going to be so caught up in doing Narnia "differently" that they'll lose the deeper point of it, and the meaning and sincerity of the basic story will get buried under all this outward stuff that could very well make the whole thing come across as a bonkers parody of Narnia. 

And of course there's the fact that this is the first-ever screen version of The Magician's Nephew, and for that reason, I would so much rather have it be a "straight" adaptation, and then maybe in the future someone else could try doing a really way-out "alternative" remake, just to do something different from the traditional version that everyone's familiar with. But we can only wait and see what this one turns out like, and whether or not the story we all know is still recognisable.

Posted by: @cobalt-jade

I have to say the pic looks like it got Strawberry's coloration right, if that is Strawberry! So many illustrators have depicted him as white, like the classic version of Pegasus.

I'm happy too that he appears to be chestnut — although I still reckon his name suggests he's a strawberry roan (which is the traditional term for a chestnut horse with fine white flecks all through the coat). But now I think about it, strawberry roan horses aren't very common, and their exact patterning is always a bit different for each individual horse. And as is usual when filming extended scenes with live animals, they'll need multiple identical-looking horses to play the role of the one character (I think we were told somewhere that they were using three of them in these initial filming sessions). It must be much easier to find several near-identical chestnut horses (very common coat colour) than it would be to find several near-identical roans.

Posted by: @cobalt-jade

Don't know if it was here or on Reddit, but a poster was saying a horse carriage in 1950s London doesn't make sense. Well of course it does. There were tourist rides in Hyde Park. Also some British police not to mention Royal Guards were mounted on horses.

A few of us have been discussing this in the original thread here about "scenes set in 1950s".

Of course there were a few horse-drawn carriages in 1950s London, as well as mounted police and royal guardsmen (as there still are in 2020s London, I can confirm firsthand!). The problem here is, as I know I said in the other discussion, that Frank absolutely needs to be a lower-class, salt-of-the-earth type for his character to fit the plot of the story, at least as Lewis wrote it. A humble, honest, good-hearted, hard-working cabman and his wife become the first King and Queen of a newly created world. (There's possibly even a slight echo there of the King of all kings being born in a stable, and growing up as a carpenter's son, and riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.) Virtually all the resonance of that is lost if Frank is a mounted police officer (highly skilled role) or a royal guardsman (they are, and always have been, serving members of the armed forces, not an ornamental display for tourists).

I really don't know where they're going with this particular adaptation, and I'm not entirely comfortable with the hints we've seen so far, but I will wait to see it for myself before I pass any judgment! 

My gut instinct is that Jadis is raiding stuff from around London trying to create new armor for herself. I can see how someone unfamiliar with that modern style of dress could potentially believe that the silver scales (or whatever that’s made of) are meant to be some kind of armor, and the things on her arms look like she’s ripped them off of cars or something, as someone pointed out in the comments of the article. It looks completely and utterly ridiculous to us but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this turns out to be a total mishmash of stuff she’s grabbed while running through the city and she’s made it into what she thinks is armor. THAT I could completely understand, though I seriously hope she’s not still wearing that at the creation of Narnia and there’s a costume change somewhere in there, because that would feel so ludicrously out of place lol.

I can see that. But that glittery curtain dress looks like nothing from 1950s London. Maybe she ripped it off the stage from a Burlesque Club.

I think there’s a reasonable possibility that when we finally see the finished movie, Jadis’s costume will look very different on screen due to the use of CGI and/or motion capture technology.

Here's an additional thought. In the book, when Jadis is rampaging around London wearing whatever outfit she had on in Charn, the people of late 19th century London think she's a circus performer, or else an escapee from the lunatic asylum.

If Jadis in the film really is going to wear "that" outfit we've seen in these early photos, I can quite imagine the people of mid-1950s London coming to the same conclusions.  

Posted by: @cobalt-jade

The first thought I had when I saw the costume was that it's a homage to the Paco Rabanne inspired outfits used in the 1967 SF film Barbarella.

You're not the only one I've seen mention this, so maybe there's some inspiration there. I could totally see Jadis magic herself into an outfit she saw in London she thought was interesting. I also have to chuckle because it sure gives Aunt Letty an extra reason to refer to her as a "shameless hussy"  

@fantasia    -Even if this isn't THE costume, that is the craziest thing I have ever seen. I feel like I'm back in the 70s-90s with She-Ra or Xena Warrior Princess. 

That metallic short dress with the silver boots makes me think of the metallic objects draped over Andy Serkis when they used this metal for a photographic guide to depict Gollum accurately in LOTR.

New set photos of Jadis rampaging London are on NarniaWeb now. The costume is exactly the same as the previous costume pictures, but I thought it would be interesting to post it here as you can see it in more detail. More pictures have not changed my opinion on it, though. I know Jadis is sometimes over-the-top, but that dress is waaaay too bright and garish, and let's not even talk about the shoulder pad/arm armor thing. 

Here's my current fan theory:

When she's in Charn, the costume will be more ornate. Probably a cloak attached, and definitely a crown.

As she goes through the movie, she'll progressively loose more bits and pieces of the armour as she becomes more ragged.

By the end, the only thing remaining element will be the metallic armour plates that comprise the dress, which will somehow then factor into her visual transformation into the White Witch.

Could be completely wrong about all that, but the reflective crystal ice like nature of the dress pieces kind of makes me think it's building towards that moment.

Posted by: @whiteswan

More pictures have not changed my opinion on it, though.

Ooer, me neither. I was just looking at these new photos of her with the presumably-Digory figure in front of her with the blanked-out face, and I couldn't help thinking "Yeah, I realise that's a dummy, but if I were stuck on a horse riding around with this particular lady in public, I wouldn't want anyone to recognise my face either."  

I'm going to be the odd person out on this. Except for that gear on her arm (what's it called? A rerebrace? Thanks @Adeona !), the costume is growing on me. I'm sure the stunt double is wearing a very cheap and light version from the up close version Emma Mackey will wear (there's a term for this too and I cannot think of it right now) because the stunt double lady needs a light version for the stunts and it won't be in close up shots.

But goodness, this is SO different and unique to anything else any other Jadis has ever appeared in, I kind of like it solely for that reason. 

Posted by: @fantasia on March 15, 2025

I'm going to go a different direction from the suggested Persian designs up above (that's how I envision the Calormene people). I want to see something alien, not inspired by outfits here on earth.

Well....

Posted by: @icarus

As she goes through the movie, she'll progressively loose more bits and pieces of the armour as she becomes more ragged.

They kind of went that direction with Tilda Swinton's ice crown though. I'm not sure they'll want to repeat that. 

Posted by: @icarus

Could be completely wrong about all that, but the reflective crystal ice like nature of the dress pieces kind of makes me think it's building towards that moment.

I do like this suggestion/implication very much.

I'm sure someone else suggested this and it's not an original idea from me, but I wonder if they'll go with a theme of like, mechanized, almost steam punk Charn/Witch, to contrast with the natural wonder of Narnia. I could go with that juxtaposition.

I think Gerwig sees Jadis as more of a conqueror and General than a monarch who watches the battle from up on the parapet. Lewis gave us both sides of her in the text, but Pauline Baynes' illustration depicts her in regal robes and that says she didn't get her hands dirty in the actual fight. Though I'd say her sister did.