For MN, I've already suggested elsewhere that Strawberry / Fledge could be gender-swapped without any major problems. There's nothing about his general character or his role in the story that requires him to be male or that would be seriously affected if he was changed to a she. Mares could be used as cab horses in Victorian London (think of Ginger in Black Beauty), so there's no problem with it being historically implausible either.

There's also the possibility of not actually swapping a character's gender, but swapping the roles that particular characters play in the story. I once saw a stage play of LWW that had Mrs Beaver as the one who goes out and meets the Pevensies in the woods, while Mr Beaver waits for them at home. That worked well. (There were other aspects of that stage version that I wasn't happy about, but that wasn't one of them!) 

I'd be good with all those suggestions except for Tumnus since he's so iconic and I fear expanding on the dryad in The Last Battle would mean less of Jewel. Maybe Jewel himself could be gender swapped though.

@courtenay Strawberry might be idea, though I think he later becomes a flying horse and Aslan changes his name to Fledge, "The father of all flying horses." So would that mean the line would be change to "The Mother of all Flying Horses?" But I guess if Strawberry was changed to a female, perhaps there could be another horse that's a male. There are male and female animals gathered around Aslan short after the creation of Narnia anyways, so I don't see why Strawberry as a female would have a male horse companion or even vice versa.

@col-klink There's an idea, though I think the book says that Tirian and Jewel loved each other like brothers, so I don't know how Jewel being changed to a female would work ("they love each other like brother and sister?") Though I've seen movies or series where a boy and girl character have a sibling like relationship.

I suppose we'll have to wait and see what they decide to do.

Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

@courtenay Strawberry might be idea, though I think he later becomes a flying horse and Aslan changes his name to Fledge, "The father of all flying horses."

Yes, he does, if you read the book. That's why I referred to him as "Strawberry / Fledge" in my earlier post. 

So would that mean the line would be change to "The Mother of all Flying Horses?"

Pretty obviously, yes, it would have to be. But as I said, nothing about that would make any real difference to the plot. 

But I guess if Strawberry was changed to a female, perhaps there could be another horse that's a male. There are male and female animals gathered around Aslan short after the creation of Narnia anyways, so I don't see why Strawberry as a female would have a male horse companion or even vice versa.

In the book, Strawberry joins the other animals of Narnia when Aslan creates them, and then when Aslan chooses a male and a female of each species to become the first Talking Beast, Strawberry is one of the ones chosen. We're never told who the first female Talking Horse was, or what happened after Strawberry grew wings and there was no longer a wingless male Talking Horse to father the dynasty that would eventually give rise to Bree and Hwin! Maybe Aslan retrospectively chose one of the other ordinary male horses to become another Talking Horse in Strawberry's place. (We do know that the power of speech can be granted to Narnian animals even after Aslan's initial act of creation, because — as we learn from PC — the mice in Narnia first became Talking Mice as a reward for eating through Aslan's bonds on the Stone Table in LWW.)

But all that is getting off topic, and whether or not Strawberry / Fledge is gender-swapped, I don't think it'd be a good idea to introduce another Talking Horse into the story and complicate the plot with things that aren't necessary to it. The story will probably have to be shortened to fit into a movie of a reasonable length, so I wouldn't want to see anything added to it that wouldn't enhance it and that might take away from the amount of screen time for more important things. 

@jasmine_tarkheena   SC- This is also a tough one. Maybe some of the gnomes, underground, could be girls, so that there could be both boys and girls. Any other ideas?

For the population of gnomes that were present underground, I doubt that it even matters who is male or female, when they were all shapes & sizes. Of the ones where it might matter, there are the Warden of the Underworld, Mullugutherum, Golg, who acts as a guide, and the boatman across that silent sea to the Witch's palace, where they eventually found Prince Rillian. I think it was the Focus on the Family audio version, where either Mullugutherum or the Warden of the Underworld (are they the same person? I never could be sure) who had that deep black, gravelly voice, which after our debate about Meryl as Aslan, definitely has to be masculine & as lugubrious sounding as Lurch in the Addams family.

I'd vote in that bloke with the wrecked larynx (due to throat cancer) who does the anti-smoking ad on radio, if possible, but, even if he wanted the job, he unfortunately is in the wrong country to be suitable.  The same goes for that plumber, some Mondays ago, with the definitely loud voice, whose deep male diction alone would make him eminently suitable to play Aslan, especially as his voice ensured that he was far too audible for hubby for him to dare plead that he couldn't hear what was said, even for a moment. But once, again, even the plumber would likely prefer to stay with his day job.     

Enough of the joking around, what about Puddleglum? The deeply practical, rock solid, fiercely loyal Puddleglum, surely should be left a male, as well as thin and froggy.  By the way, I wonder why C.S. Lewis didn't include Marsh Wiggles in the MN creation line-up? Did they just emerge as tadpoles? And what would a female Marshwiggle look like, anyway?    Memorably, Puddleglum was filmed by Dr Who veteran, Tom Baker, in the BBC film version of SC. 

@Courtenay  But all that is getting off topic, and whether or not Strawberry / Fledge is gender-swapped, I don't think it'd be a good idea to introduce another Talking Horse into the story and complicate the plot with things that aren't necessary to it

Especially as Talking Horses, like Bree and Hwin, are already well in evidence, in HHB, anyway. And in that book, it makes no sense to change their sex when the way they interact with each other, says so much about both their personalities and the society they were captured into. And also, when C.S. Lewis doesn't marry them off to each other, in the end, once they finally reached Narnia, even if they stayed friends with Shasta & Aravis. 

@jasmine_tarkheena  HHB- This a tough one. Maybe Swallowpad the Raven could be a female raven. Then I don’t know. Any other ideas?

There are plenty of native Australian ravens who hang around shopping centres, whose mating calls to each other are only too like the disapproving tones of gossiping great-aunts gathered around for afternoon tea, or irritated shoppers, when their small children poke around where they shouldn't, so perhaps Sallowpad could very well be a female talking raven, so they can croak, Uuh! Uuh! NOOO! to good effect.  

I think a male Polly and a female Digory would be very inappropriate. It isn’t like Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Ariel in The Tempest where either gender would work in the role.  Most of the Narnian characters have the their gender roles designed for them. So why would a gender switch be necessary? 

Posted by: @narnian78

I think a male Polly and a female Digory would be very inappropriate.

In that scenario though all you are doing is giving Digory's plot to Polly, and Polly's plot to Digory. You would still be left with a story involving Digory and Polly, but now Polly would be the one with the dying mother.

Other than losing the semi-autobiographical connection to Lewis (and the knock-on effect on LWW) it's a relatively minor change to the books core message, and definitely not something I would describe as inappropriate.

@icarus 

Sorry, but I don’t agree with you on this issue, and I think C. S. Lewis would have objected strongly to people changing the gender of his characters. He created his characters with a specific gender in mind.   I think that was the author’s intention. Of course Lewis would probably not have approved of movies based on his books, but that is another issue. If movies or television series are made from his books they should retain the gender of his original characters as much as possible. The gender is specific to the character. It is a matter of keeping faithful to the author’s original work. That is an appropriate choice with respect to the creator of the Narnia tales.

I certainly wouldn't agree to the idea of Digory and Polly switching roles (with Polly being the one with the dying mother) in MN or even to the idea of Eustace and Jill switching roles (with Eustace with the one being bullied) later in SC. 

Though @courtenay brings ups an interesting idea about Mrs Beaver as the one who goes out and meets the Pevensies in the woods, while Mr Beaver waits for them at home. I was actually in a Narnia play years ago where I've played a wood nymph, and we've actually had both Mr. and Mrs. Beaver meeting the Pevensies in the woods, and leading them to their home.

Some characters I wouldn't mind being changed from male to female and vice versa, or even the male and female character's roles switched. But again, it would depend on the character.

@jasmine_tarkheena   Some characters I wouldn't mind being changed from male to female and vice versa

It also depends on how important to the story the character's gender would be. For instance, I've already pointed out that there was no point in changing Bree's gender with Hwin being the prized warhorse and he being the horse, Aravis is allowed to ride, when the gender of each talking horse in the story defines not only their Calormene experiences, but also their attitudes and characters in their flight back to Narnia where they were both born. And that is also why there is no way anyone should mess with what gender Aravis & Shasta should be, when Aravis' flight from an unwanted arranged marriage to some physically ugly old man was really something for young girls to dread, and only too real, in some societies even today, and every bit as horrible as having to live as a slave could very well be for Shasta, especially as it was only because of his curiosity value that Tarkhaan  Anradin wanted to buy him in the first place. HHB taps into an old genre like the French chantefable, Aucassin et Nicolette, where their situations have already been switched from the normal fairy tale romantic norm, with Nicolette, the captive Saracen princess, who ends up rescuing more humbly born Aucassin more often than not.

On the other hand, I agree that switching roles for the Beavers might be okay, just as I could see that making Sallowpad female would not be any drama at all, especially when real life Australian ravens, at any rate, as well as our native lyre birds, cockatoos, budgerigars etc, do a very good job of imitating common human vocal interactions.    And of course, adding female earthlings to the picture in Underland would only be too likely for a filmmaker. A female Golg might be okay, just as the female Trufflehunter, of Walden's Prince Caspian, made no difference to the role or personality of the male character depicted in C.S. Lewis' book. Just don't try changing Eustace & Jill's situation, in SC, when Eustace is Lucy & Edmund's bratty cousin, before his undragoning in VDT, when Jill has already noticed his transformation, and when, like C.S. Lewis, himself, his and Jill's experience of going to what we might call high school in Australia, and boarding school in C.S. Lewis' case, wasn't all that comfortable an experience, or so I have read. 

Posted by: @narnian78

If movies or television series are made from his books they should retain the gender of his original characters as much as possible.

I totally agree with you. Gender swapping is really unnecessary - and very upsetting. It is only necessary when you want to please the today's loudest crowds, and that is a rather ignominious goal.

Lewis had things to say about that.