Those are interesting theories! Though I have wondered that if Greta is only going to direct two Narnia films, would the other ones (if they all end up being feature length movies) be going through different directors. I know that a lot of movie franchises go through a lot of different directors, so it shouldn't be a surprise.

I don't know if I can see Greta Gerwig doing The Last Battle, because that's a very complex book, perhaps the most complex. Then there's the issue of Susan being no longer a friend of Narnia. There's usually that concern among Narnia fans is that how are they going to address that.

I am waiting to see how Greta Gerwig's final projects of the Narnia films turns out. I'm not sure if there's any theory of my own that I could think of. But all those ones sure sounds interesting!

That's an interesting theory, though i think there needs to be a stronger justification in there of why specifically HHB in particular would be so important to Greta Gerwig (i.e. I can see that the fact that the villains are a male-dominated patriarchal society would potentially be a big appeal to her, but for me the inevitable ethno-cultural aspects of that debate would be a whole bee's nest of controversy that I could see her steering well clear of).

Overall, I think there are probably simpler theories about the pivot from Movies back to TV.

Since i wrote this piece for NarniaWeb at the very deepest darkest point of the "no-news drought", we've suddenly seen more progress on Narnia... But that has also coincided with more changes behind the scenes at Netflix, and more changes to the rapidly evolving streaming landscape in general.

Take this recent quote from Scott Stuber, where he specifically admits that the previous "quantity over quality" approach taken by Netflix during the last 4 years (i.e. the Narnia News Drought Era) was a mistake:

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/netflix-bad-movies.html

Therefore if I was looking for a reason for them pivoting from movies back to TV for Narnia, I would probably be looking at the financial failures of alot of their movie outputs over the last 4.years, and the financial successes of their TV outputs over the last 4.years - in particular things like Stranger Things (itself a lasting monument from the old old regime at Netflix).

I think you can also potentially see this "corporate rebound" in Netflix's Strategy playing out with their Road Dahl franchise... Their first entry was a fairly bland but inoffensive adaptation of the Matilda Musical filmed in 2021, which they also released in cinemas, but  made almost no money, before dropping on streaming a few months later and disappeared into the cultural vacuum.... However, their most recent Dahl adaptations were of 3 relatively obscure short stories which they gave to acclaimed auteur director Wes Anderson, who directed them in the most quintessential Wes Anderson manner, gaining them alot of critical acclaim in the process.

Whilst Greta Gerwig doesn't quite have the same signature visual style as Anderson, she definitely falls into the same category of indie director, and therefore I'd be very willing to connect the dots between Netflix hiring her for Narnia and Anderson for Dahl as being an indicative keystone of Netflix's new approach.

Your theory is certainly an interesting one Rose.  

But the first thing I'm going to challenge is the assumption that each book is being translated into one individual project, and that Gerwig is adapting two separate books into movies. I don't have any specific evidence Netflix:Narnia news to back this suggestion up, but if Aldrich was adapting MN, wouldn't his quote still work if Netflix was like "no, no, we want our first big movie to be 'Magician's Nephew: The Wood Between the Worlds,' followed by 'Magician's Nephew: The Creation of Narnia,' and the TV series on the side to be 'Charn: The Rise of Jadis'!" He gives up and leaves and Gerwig picks up where he left off, regardless of whatever she was originally going to do.
But that type of worldbuilding is what other film companies are doing with their hit series and I guess that's what I'm expecting from Netflix for Narnia as well.

Posted by: @rose

2. LWW (series directed by someone else)

This is the part that's especially tripping me up. All of us here on NarniaWeb really, REALLY want to see a different book adapted to film. I think that's why many of us are guilty of leaning toward some other book besides LWW being the first one Netflix puts out. 
But the more I think about it, the more I can't ignore the large amount of time that has passed since Walden:Narnia. We have a whole new generation of viewers. I really believe LWW needs to be their flagship movie because it's the most well known story of the series, the most popular (in terms of sales), and (imho) one of the better book-to-film stories. I don't know if Netflix plans to release any of their Narnia projects in movie theaters, but if they do, and they shove LWW off to the side as a series, that would be some kind of kamikaze financial move.

Posted by: @icarus

Therefore if I was looking for a reason for them pivoting from movies back to TV for Narnia, I would probably be looking at the financial failures of alot of their movie outputs over the last 4.years, and the financial successes of their TV outputs over the last 4.years - in particular things like Stranger Things (itself a lasting monument from the old old regime at Netflix).

Yes, and the article you found is a good one, but I'm talking about why Matthew Aldrich attended the WGA training program in January 2021. That means that the plan seems to have changed by late 2020 at least — a long time ago! If anything, Netflix's commitment to big name, big budget films at the time makes the choice to pivot to television for Narnia even more puzzling (but not so puzzling if they were thinking about making MN with Gerwig instead, with LWW to follow as a series).

Posted by: @icarus

Whilst Greta Gerwig doesn't quite have the same signature visual style as Anderson, she definitely falls into the same category of indie director, and therefore I'd be very willing to connect the dots between Netflix hiring her for Narnia and Anderson for Dahl as being an indicative keystone of Netflix's new approach.

That's a good observation!

Posted by: @fantasia

if Aldrich was adapting MN, wouldn't his quote still work if Netflix was like "no, no, we want our first big movie to be 'Magician's Nephew: The Wood Between the Worlds,' followed by 'Magician's Nephew: The Creation of Narnia,' and the TV series on the side to be 'Charn: The Rise of Jadis'!" He gives up and leaves and Gerwig picks up where he left off, regardless of whatever she was originally going to do.

For sure, but the theory I'm sharing here is assuming that Greta Gerwig was talking with Netflix about Narnia before Aldrich attended the WGA program.

These are the two recent quotes we have that give us some inkling of the timeline for Gerwig's involvement with this project:

"[Narnia is] something I was actually talking about before I made Barbie. So, that’s been sort of in my unconscious working its way through. But that has been a pattern. I wrote a draft of Little Women before I made Lady Bird." —Greta Gerwig

"Greta’s been a friend for a while. Her husband, [director] Noah Baumbach, we’re close to, we’ve made I think three films. We’re starting another one. We have a big deal with them. [...] When we had [2019’s] ‘Marriage Story’ and she had ‘Little Women,’ we all spent quite a bit of time on the awards trail together at dinners. [Gerwig] grew up in a Christian background. The C.S. Lewis books are very much based in Christianity. And so we just started talking about it." —Scott Stuber

Looking at these, I think Stuber's quote makes it sound like Gerwig first talked to Netflix executives about Narnia when she was at dinners on the awards trail for Little Women, which would have been early 2020.

And honestly, if Gerwig had an interest in doing Narnia, she would have needed to go ahead and say something to Netflix about it because they were making other plans at the time. So the conversation beginning at some point in 2020 seems reasonable to me.

Posted by: @fantasia

I don't know if Netflix plans to release any of their Narnia projects in movie theaters, but if they do, and they shove LWW off to the side as a series, that would be some kind of kamikaze financial move.

I can see how a non-theatrical release might feel like a step down, but when I think of Netflix's most successful, famous projects, what comes to mind is series like Stranger Things and Squid Game. And like @icarus said above, Netflix seems to be cooling the focus on movie productions in favor of series at this stage. Also, considering that Stranger Things is ending in the next few years, I think Netflix would definitely be interested in doing a flagship Pevensie-based series.

tbh - If that is describing Narnia, then I think it's likely that it played out something like this. 

- Netflix plans a massive multi-media Narnia franchise but doesn't want to be stuck with exclusively just movies or TV shows.

- They hire Matthew Aldrich as the person who can oversee the story and make it consistent between the various hypothetical films, shows, spinoffs, games, etc. 

- News goes dead as Netflix and Aldrich go back and forth on various ideas for which books should be made into what and when. Clearly, the plan is for the first instalment to be a movie

- Since it's clear that their expensive blockbusters don't do that well* Netflix decides to pivot the Narnia stuff to just TV. They clearly have more success there than with film, and youth-aimed shows are among their most popular original dramas. 

- Aldrich, therefore, changes his initial "let's start this franchise off with a bang" movie script into an 8-part TV show. 

- Netflix finds out that extremely in-demand director Greta Gerwig wants to take a crack at adapting Narnia, but only if she's allowed to do it her way, with her own team. They pass. 

- Months go by. At this point, there's clearly not been a lot of forward movement with the project in a while.

- Maybe the pressure of slotting into an untested pre-planned multi-media franchise is turning off potential A-listers like Gerwig? Or maybe it's having to answer to a relatively unproven, unknown like Aldrich? Either way, something's gotta give. 

- After Aldrich leaves, a lot of backroom private negotiation goes on for months between Gerwig and Netflix, who understandably still want to retain as much control over this potential franchise, as possible. 

- Barbie comes out, and suddenly the ball is very much in Gerwig's court. Every studio now wants her more than ever, and if she leaves, Netflix are basically back to square one, again...

*(despite what their own unverifiable numbers claim, stuff like Red Notice was obviously not a massive Avatar-level smash, lol)

Hey @LentenLands! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, that's an interesting breakdown.

Posted by: @lentenlands

- Since it's clear that their expensive blockbusters don't do that well* Netflix decides to pivot the Narnia stuff to just TV. They clearly have more success there than with film, and youth-aimed shows are among their most popular original dramas.

*(despite what their own unverifiable numbers claim, stuff like Red Notice was obviously not a massive Avatar-level smash, lol)

Red Notice didn't come out until November 2021, though, and Aldrich attended the WGA showrunner program in January 2021. The Gray Man, another of Netflix's big budget, big name movies, wouldn't come out until July 2022, either. It's possible that Netflix decided independently to change strategies with Narnia against Aldrich's wishes (if what he wrote on Medium was indeed referring to Narnia!), but it wasn't because of the viewership numbers for those particular movies.

And thinking back, the decision for Aldrich to attend the showrunner program would actually have happened no later than September 2020, because that was the deadline for the application for the 2021 program...

(I have spent way too much time researching this production over the years. )

So, I guess the question is: would it have made sense for Netflix executives to suddenly decide to switch gears from films to series in 2020, based on what we know about the company's strategy and economic position at that time?

If Matthew Aldrich didn't want to re-break the script into a series, then there must have been someone at Netflix who believed that it was a good idea. But it's hard for me to account for the change in Netflix's attitude at that time, outside of a visionary like Gerwig getting involved and making the case for it.

Posted by: @lentenlands

- Months go by. At this point, there's clearly not been a lot of forward movement with the project in a while.

- Maybe the pressure of slotting into an untested pre-planned multi-media franchise is turning off potential A-listers like Gerwig? Or maybe it's having to answer to a relatively unproven, unknown like Aldrich? Either way, something's gotta give. 

I didn't mention this in my original post, but there's some reason to believe that Aldrich may have no longer been active on the project by mid-2021, or that the entire production had entered hibernation for a while, or both. Beginning in May 2021, Aldrich made several lengthy guest appearances on a podcast about films (The Everything Sequel Podcast), and just in general did not seem like someone who was very busy with a massive project like Narnia. It's my opinion that he's not been very involved with Narnia since then (and of course, his contract expired in June 2022).

The fact that things seemed to power down so quickly after attending the WGA program is definitely interesting. If Netflix had parted ways with Aldrich over creative differences, you'd think they would have hired someone else to work on Narnia, but as far as I know, nothing. So waiting for Gerwig seems by far the most likely to me.

You know, we're still assuming that Netflix wants to make both movies and TV series out of the Narnia books. But it occurred to me recently that that was so long ago in the production process that maybe now they just want do movies. 

Posted by: @col-klink

But it occurred to me recently that that was so long ago in the production process that maybe now they just want do movies. 

I think that's an absolutely fair assumption based on everything we've heard recently about Netflix's recent pivots away from the strategy of the last 4 years. In fact, given how fast the streaming landscape is evolving from a business perspective, I'd just assume that any quote about strategic intent that is more than a few months old should likely be considered out-of-date unless its already been enacted.

For example, the current streaming trend seems to be a move towards producing more unscripted tv series, with Amazon doing a James Bond themed reality gameshow called "007: Road to a Million" and Netflix doing a Squid Game themed reality gameshow called "Squid Game: The Challenge". Doubtless both of these productions were in works long before the writers strike, and both are perhaps logical moves for both companies in trying to capture the full range of the TV market, not just the high-end "HBO market", but I would fully expect all the major streaming platforms to double-down on this sort of unscripted content in the aftermath of the writers strike, particularly if they can slap a big-name IP on the show like James Bond or Squid Game..... I'll just leave it to everyone here to imagine what the crass nightmare version of a Narnia themed Reality TV Game Show would look like 🤣 

Posted by: @icarus

I'll just leave it to everyone here to imagine what the crass nightmare version of a Narnia themed Reality TV Game Show would look like 🤣 

Oh groan... the mind boggles. Dump some participants in a snow-covered region and have them evade the White Witch? Or how about being pursued through the desert by a Calormene army?? Or stranded on a VDT-style island with a real dragon... now there's a thought...  

I agree though, it's so long since the original statement from Netflix that it's probably best not to assume anything holds unless it's been recently confirmed. We have been told — so far — that Greta Gerwig has been commissioned to do at least two Narnia movies, but there's no indication of whether they're now planning to do all seven books as movies, or some of them as multi-episode series, or what.

I was always surprised at Netflix's statement about making both movies and series, as I would have thought most production companies would do all of the books in the same format. The BBC did three six-episode series (counting PC (2 episodes) and VDT (4 episodes) as one series, which is how they were originally screened on TV), whereas Walden did three films. Doing different books in different formats would make the entire set of shows feel less unified, I reckon. But once again, it's still all speculation until we hear anything for sure.

Posted by: @courtenay

Oh groan... the mind boggles. Dump some participants in a snow-covered region and have them evade the White Witch? Or how about being pursued through the desert by a Calormene army?? Or stranded on a VDT-style island with a real dragon... now there's a thought...  

Well, I know there's been some concerns among Narnia fans (myself included) that a new Narnia movie could add too much action. So Rabadash and his army of Calormenes pursuing Shasta and Aravis in the desert in HHB or Rishda and his army of Calormenes pursuing Tirian, Eustace and Jill as they go rescue Jewel in LB? *Shuddered.*

I know there's been talking about what books will be movies and which ones will be series. Well, anything can happen in a new Narnia movie or series: there could be some minor or even major imperfections. I for one is waiting to see what happens.  

Posted by: @col-klink

You know, we're still assuming that Netflix wants to make both movies and TV series out of the Narnia books. But it occurred to me recently that that was so long ago in the production process that maybe now they just want do movies. 

Well, we do know that Mark Gordon is still involved on the project, and his original plans involved series and films. Plus, there was that 3,000 characters/Game of Thrones comment. Of course, all of that is older information and may no longer reflect what Netflix wants to do, but it's also worth noting that both Amy Pascal and Mark Gordon work in feature films AND television series.

The only thing that I really expect, though, is for Netflix to not box themselves in one way or another. They have so little IP that is recognizable worldwide, and they're going to want to be careful with Narnia for that reason.

Posted by: @icarus

I'll just leave it to everyone here to imagine what the crass nightmare version of a Narnia themed Reality TV Game Show would look like 🤣 

Posted by: @courtenay

Oh groan... the mind boggles. Dump some participants in a snow-covered region and have them evade the White Witch?

... If the only people who can assist the contestants are the Beavers from the BBC LWW series, I would absolutely watch that.

Posted by: @rose

Well, we do know that Mark Gordon is still involved on the project, and his original plans involved series and films. Plus, there was that 3,000 characters/Game of Thrones comment. Of course, all of that is older information and may no longer reflect what Netflix wants to do, but it's also worth noting that both Amy Pascal and Mark Gordon work in feature films AND television series.

The only thing that I really expect, though, is for Netflix to not box themselves in one way or another. They have so little IP that is recognizable worldwide, and they're going to want to be careful with Narnia for that reason.

Good points — although when it comes to "IP that is recognisable worldwide", they have had some original shows that have been big worldwide hits, like The Crown. But I'm guessing you're referring to intellectual property that was already famous worldwide, before Netflix gained the rights to it. I don't currently have a Netflix subscription, but you're right, I'm not aware of any already-well-known "brands" they owned until very recently (I take it they now have the rights to Roald Dahl). So I'm hoping you're right about them wanting to be careful with Narnia!

Posted by: @courtenay

Oh groan... the mind boggles. Dump some participants in a snow-covered region and have them evade the White Witch?

... If the only people who can assist the contestants are the Beavers from the BBC LWW series, I would absolutely watch that.

Now I'm having visions... It's a Narnia Knockout!!! (It's a Knockout was an absolutely bonkers game show / physical challenge extravaganza that used to be on Australian TV in the 1980s, and I'm aware there were versions in other countries too — at least in the UK — so I'm hoping at least some here will know what I'm talking about.)

I won't speculate on Netflix's current plans except to say that IMO Voyage of the Dawn Treader is uniquely suited to adaptation as a tv show rather than a movie due to its episodic nature. 

Narnia is a difficult project to carry out not only because of the background of its writing but also because of the imagination that must be had to carry it out.

Greta's fear is understandable and honestly the idea of making MN a movie and HHB a series is not such a bad idea, especially because today's audience is demanding about what they want to see from Narnia.

Better written books are MN, HHB and LB, and that makes them more difficult to bring to the big screen. The whole adventure of HBB and VDT is slow because they really qualify as series while books like MN, LB and SC qualify as movies.

I am one of those who does not agree with the adaptations of lww and pc being remade.

I guess Netflix and Greta are just being cautious about Narnia, they know if they do something wrong it would be a big loss, no wonder they've kept the Narnia stuff in the closet until now.