Now, they could have the children still evacuated because bombings if they lived on the Falkland Island during the 1980s. There were some evacuations from the Falkland Islands, so if they really want evacuations, there is a way they could do that. Also, Maybe a reason to change the timeline is they wanted King Frank to be through World War II. The third reason I thought of, (I consider it very unlikely) Polly and Digory are going to be kids in the next movies and Digory will not be the Professor at all. They just wanted all the stories to take place in the 50s. 

@eustace The Falkland Islands are a long way from England. They're almost at the south tip of South America. Apart from British military personnel, the population is 2000, all of British descent. I haven't found any evidence that children were taken away from the islands for safety, just a few hundred evacuated to the army camp. Where did you get your information?

I don’t think it’s huge, there will just be a few scenes of Polly and Digory in old age. Digory is alive in TLTWATW so why wouldn’t he be alive 10 years later? I bet Polly and him are recounting their tales in Narnia and the rest is flashbacks.

@courtenay [corrected]  @falaskan1 I think you are unfortunately mistaken about some of the filming details. 

I think we can say with absolute certainty that all of the real world scenes we saw filmed were set in the 1950s, and that Jadis, young Digory and young Polly were all spotted on set in scenes set during the 1950s.

Posted by: @icarus

@courtenay I think you are unfortunately mistaken about some of the filming details. 

I think we can say with absolute certainty that all of the real world scenes we saw filmed were set in the 1950s, and that Jadis, young Digory and young Polly were all spotted on set in scenes set during the 1950s.

Which filming details am I mistaken about, sorry? I haven't posted in this discussion recently, and certainly haven't suggested that the upcoming Netflix film will be set in any period other than the 1950s (I'm well aware that that's been the setting of all the this-world scenes that have been filmed to date, as far as we know).

Perhaps you were meaning to reply to somebody else here? 

@courtenay ooops.. I replied to the wrong person. It was the person immediately above- @falaskan1- not sure how that one got mixed up. 

Posted by: @falaskan1

Digory is alive in TLTWATW so why wouldn’t he be alive 10 years later?

... Because — I hope this isn't a spoiler for anyone here — he and Polly both die in the final book, The Last Battle, which (according to the not-always-consistent "official" timeline written by Lewis after he completed the series) is set in 1949, 9 years after the events of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

And as Icarus has already said, the scenes that have been filmed so far include the child actors for Digory and Polly, plus other characters, in a clearly 1950s setting. So it's highly likely that the rest of the stories — from LWW onwards in chronological order — will be set (in our world) in the 1990s or later, possibly even in the present or near present day. If the franchise continues beyond the first film, that is... 

@coracle As it turns out, although I heard it from someone in my real life, I guess that was not exactly true, since I had never heard of the Falklands War, I thought they must know what they were talking about. There were six kids who were evacuated. But, they were all governor's or another official's children and they eventually did go back to UK because of the War but, it seems they went with their parents, so, there is no real reason to stay at some random guy's house in the country.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/04/03/Weary-British-Royal-Marines-overwhelmed-while-trying-to-defend/5823386658000

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/1204552767/

In terms of the overall story dynamic of a modern-set LWW, I don't think it's necessarily important that there be a war involved. I also don't think it's important that it be part of a mass evacuation either (e.g. the result of a natural disaster or some such thing)

To me, the critical factors are:

• The children are separated from their parents
• Their parents aren't dead / the children aren't orphans 
• The children themselves don't know the Professor / he is not related to them.

In the case or the last point I don't see it as important for the parents to also not know the Professor as well, given that the parents exist entirely off-screen. 

Therefore any explanation would suffice that is along the lines of:

"the two parents had to go away for a bit due to 'reasons' and they therefore they decided to leave the children in the care of a trusted family friend or an educational professional." 

Posted by: @icarus

In terms of the overall story dynamic of a modern-set LWW, I don't think it's necessarily important that there be a war involved. I also don't think it's important that it be part of a mass evacuation either (e.g. the result of a natural disaster or some such thing)

To me, the critical factors are:

• The children are separated from their parents
• Their parents aren't dead / the children aren't orphans 
• The children themselves don't know the Professor / he is not related to them.

In the case or the last point I don't see it as important for the parents to also not know the Professor as well, given that the parents exist entirely off-screen. 

Therefore any explanation would suffice that is along the lines of:

"the two parents had to go away for a bit due to 'reasons' and they therefore they decided to leave the children in the care of a trusted family friend or an educational professional." 

Yes, this is the sort of thing I've said several times too. I get a Wee Bit Irritated (very British of me — I must have lived here too long ) with commentators who claim that World War 2 is an intrinsic part of LWW and it's essential to the plot and it will all be ruined if set in a time period without that war, or at least without some sort of war. That's an interpretation presumably based on the Walden Media film version and possibly on other adaptations (like that stage version I saw in London once), in which the wartime setting is made a huge part of the story. In the book itself, there is ONE mention of "the war" in the second sentence of the first chapter, and after that, there is absolutely nothing in the story that gives any indication of the time period, let alone of larger world events. Whatever modern-day screenwriters or dramatists may like to do with it, it was clearly not C.S. Lewis's intention to write a "war story".

Icarus's three "critical factors" here — which I agree are all that the basic plot needs — are quite achievable without there needing to be a war or even some other worldwide or nationwide disruption to society like the 2020-21 Covid pandemic (which, as I know I've explained before, WOULD NOT WORK as a basis for getting the children "isolated" at the Professor's house without their parents during the lockdown, unless they were already there without their parents in the first place).

The now-almost-lost 1967 TV series of LWW — which used the Professor as the narrator — was implicitly set in the then present day, and the reason given for the children staying at the Professor's house was that their parents were away on an archaeological expedition. The 1979 animated version, which of course is the shortest screen adaptation made so far and is also definitely set in the era it was made in, just had Lucy (in a voice-over) mentioning that she and her siblings "came to stay with the Professor" without bothering to give any explanation at all for why they were there.

So I don't find it hard to believe that a new version of the story set in the 1990s or later could work without having to cook up anything too elaborate for the background to the children's situation. Just so long as we can credit it that they're in this place without their parents and they didn't know the Professor (or at least not very well) beforehand, the rest of the story should work.