We debated long and hard with that article over the exact terminology. 

My understanding of what were able to decipher from the evidence provided was that "voiced by a female" is perhaps not necessarily the same as "female voice" and that "lion with mane" equals "male Lion" for all intents and purposes. But that's just my take.

Would it be better to have all of the cards more firmly stacked up on one side or the other,?

From a semantic clarity point-of-view, definitely. It's something of a brain melter trying to get all the data points to logically fit without going round in definitional loops.

From a filmmaking point of view however its absolutely impossible to say right now without understanding the intent and purpose of it, and the context within which it will be delivered..

Case in point - in the original version of Empire Strikes Back, the emperor is played by a woman, but voiced by a man, and has the eyes of a Monkey overlaid on her face.

If you told someone before hand that's what they were doing, fans would have had a meltdown. But on screen it all works. Arguably it's better than the Special Editions whereby they replaced the Emperor's scenes with Ian McDiarmid from Return of the Jedi.

Either way, i don't think the phrasing of your poll question is necessarily correct.

It's not "if Aslan is a Lioness, should she have a Mane?" 

But rather "If Aslan is a Male Lion, can he be voiced by a Female?

I am not sure why Meryl Streep was in talks to do Aslan (if the rumor was true).

It could be something to do with his singing Narnia into creation (in which case it might be a non-issue).

Meryl is very good at doing accents, perhaps she can perform a convincing wild lion voice that does not necessarily sound female. (Fran Walsh - Peter Jackson's wife - gave the scream / screech sound for the Nazguls in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings [see this behind the scenes video], I don't think the Nazgul sound female - so there is hope that Meryl could give a convincing Male Lion performance.)

I do not believe that it is confirmed yet that she is playing Aslan, but assuming she is - or a similar actress is - like you, I would rather have Aslan depicted physically as a male lion as per the books.

If (s)he is female, I guess the references to Aslan's mane make more sense if it is maned female lion, but it already feels a long way from what Lewis intended.

Posted by: @icarus

My understanding of what were able to decipher from the evidence provided was that "voiced by a female" is perhaps not necessarily the same as "female voice" and that "lion with mane" equals "male Lion" for all intents and purposes. But that's just my take.

I guess I just don't see the plausibility of getting a famous and charismatic performer like Meryl Streep to voice a main character and then have them disguise their voice. But I seem to remember them getting famous actors to voice the chipmunks in the live action Alvin and the Chipmunks movie and then made their voices unrecognizable, so I guess it's not unprecedented. (I haven't actually seen those movies; I'm just going by what I remember hearing.) 

It doesn't matter to me either way. If Aslan is female, I'm out.

I would certainly rather not have an Aslan who appears male (with a mane) but has a voice that sounds female. That would just be strange and weird for the most important character when it comes to getting the "feel" of Narnia right (for me, at least). I wouldn't be happy with Aslan being portrayed as an actual lioness either, but at least that has less of the "uncanny" factor about it. Aslan is supposed to be unsettling in the sense of awe-inspiring, not unsettling in the sense of weird and creepy.

There are more than enough references in the books to Aslan's voice being deep and rich and wild and so on, to make me wonder why on earth the film-makers would mess that up by using a female voice actor, even — or especially — if Aslan appears outwardly male. It's just not a choice I can see any justification for, even artistically, let alone when we get into the deeper theological meaning of the character.

Anyway, the whole "Meryl Streep in talks to play Aslan" rumour broke exactly six months ago yesterday, and since then there has been absolutely nothing to substantiate it from any source beyond the first two that reported it. I'm just hoping it was never anything but a false rumour that was left to percolate, since Netflix is apparently always tight-lipped about details of their shows while they're still in production. I still reckon it was a bad PR move to leave such a controversial issue hanging, but I'm not in charge of this show, obviously...  

Posted by: @starlit

It doesn't matter to me either way. If Aslan is female, I'm out.

I think that's the inherent nature of the question though - How are we defining female or not?

Essentially the audience will have to make an inference about gender from 4 different facts:

• The vocal quality of the voice.
• The gender of the actor providing that voice.
• Whether the Lion has a mane or not.
• Potentially from the dialogue used in the script.

Therefore, if we are saying that the Lion will definitely have a mane, is that enough for you to consider Aslan to be a Male, in spite of the vocal elements, or is voice (and the actor providing that voice) key to you?

I think that's what makes the current situation so confusing.

Number 3 on that list point firmly male right now. And Number 2 points firmly female. 

1 and 4 are unknown.

For me, the Mane pretty much trumps everything. A maned Lion is a male Lion for all intents and purposes, therefore I'm less worried about 1 and 2, but it would definitely be nicer if all four things lined up more neatly! 

As for the poll question - a maned Lion with a female voice would still be preferable to a female lion with a female voice. Yes the latter has a greater sense of internal logical consistency, but for me the Mane is the entire ballgame when it comes to Aslan's appearance 

Posted by: @icarus

Posted by: @starlit

It doesn't matter to me either way. If Aslan is female, I'm out.

I think that's the inherent nature of the question though - How are we defining female or not?

 

There are some interesting nuances there. For instance, I really like Lynn Redgrave's recording of the audiobook of Prince Caspian. The voice she does for Nikabrik is what runs through my head when I think of the character. But I don't doubt that Nikabrik was a male character.