I HIGHLY doubt it will be both movies AND a show or an "expanded universe". There's plenty of Narnia material to last Netflix for years depending on how they produce it. They just have to decide how they want to do it first.

The press release itself differentiated producer roles for Mark Gordon, Douglas Gresham, and Vincent Seiber based on films or series. Gordon even mentioned getting started on multiple productions.

Plus, the Deadline article put a specific emphasis on how eOne "felt there was a bigger opportunity building a film-TV Narnia universe" than a theatrical release. Why would Gresham sign-off on this if it meant creating new material? How little faith do you have in the man?

Has anyone involved with the production (of...whatever this going to be ) mentioned a "shared cinematic universe?" I keep hearing that phrase but it's from paraphrasers. I'm wondering if people are just assuming that they want to do that because other studios have done so and not because the producers have actually told them that. But I could have missed something in one of the press releases.

Nope. I can see why building a Narnia universe over different mediums could lead to observers implying that. But isn't that what the books are, anyway? 7 stand-alone stories taking place in one shared universe? I like that emphasis being placed on Narnia's world/universe rather than specific characters. That's how you sell a series.

I think my biggest concern other then them straying far from the books is that they make it a family series or whatever. I want to be able to enjoy this with my kids as well. Not saying it has to be childish or cheesy, but I hope they dont turn it to "grown up" type. If they do this correctly and market it smart, Narnia could finally get the recognition it deserves. Even think of the merchandise that could follow. I am hopeful and excited!

Why would Gresham sign-off on this if it meant creating new material? How little faith do you have in the man?

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gresham and I know he cares a great deal about preserving his stepfather's legacy and making sure any adaptations of Lewis' work is as true to the source material as possible. But I don't completely trust that he's a safety net against that kind of thing.

I don't think we can be 100% certain that Gresham would never go along with a spinoff type of thing. I'll agree that on the surface it doesn't seem like the kind of thing he would sign off on. But who knows, perhaps if some producer convinced him to do it, he would. Maybe this is just my fears talking, I would love to be wrong about this.

If Netflix is just exclusively adapting the books, then I'm sort of baffled as to what exactly their plan is. Personally I don't think it makes much sense to adapt some books as films, and others as shows. To me the idea sounds more like a gimmick, and less like a decision made from a creative viewpoint.

I'm kind of wondering if this series and movies idea is really just a budget management strategy. They can constrain the stories that are more CGI-heavy into the shorter runtime of a movie, whereas they can extend the less expensive stories into series. If money is an issue, though, I wish they'd just wait until the CGI catches up with the demands of the stories instead of taking a disjointed creative approach.

It's a business thing. The more positive feedback and buzz that can be generated, the easier it's going to be for Netflix to approve funding, hire people, etc.

You could be right, and maybe they're just trying to talk a big game at this point to compete with the likes of Amazon and LotR. Still, it seems like they'd be better off just talking about an "expansive" project, a multi-year deal, lots of money poured into it, et cetera, instead of making these strong statements about making both films and series. We'll see.

... I wonder how long we'll have to wait before we get any of these questions answered.

Doubleposting because a) it's been 24 hours, and b) Reepicheep775's post here got me thinking.

Caspian's adventures in PC are set apart from the rest of the story and difficult to incorporate for that reason (especially in a movie adaptation)... is it possible the filmmakers are considering turning those Caspian chapters into a movie that's released before the PC series is kicked off? Similar to a HHB movie set within a LWW series?

Could that explain the "multiple productions" and "series and films" comments? Sometimes with television shows, especially animated series, you'll see episodes grouped together so that they create a sort of "mini-movie" within the show, so this wouldn't be a huge leap, but still, I think it would be breaking new ground on television. I need to go back and look at the Caspian chapters to see if this could even work...

*cough* Annnd we're going for the triple-post, folks.

Sorry, but there's something that's been percolating in my mind for a while and I wanted to share it. One thing that I found out when I was on a research binge about Entertainment One a while back was that some of their biggest successes are preschool age animated shows like Peppa Pig and PJ Masks. Knowing now that they're definitely moving forward with live-action movies but also knowing that they (at the very least) have some ideas in mind for television series at some point... is it possible they are considering an animated series for young children? It seems unlikely to me, but I know it's a genre that eOne has a lot of confidence and success with, and frankly... it's a little too easy for me to imagine "Little Reepicheep and Friends" on the small screen.

Man, it feels like such a relief to get real news. For the longest time it seemed as if nothing was going to happen with the franchise. I’m just happy to not have to put my faith in rumors or talks of a new film. While I am concerned about some aspects of what Netflix could do with the series, I look forward to their creativity and I hope they expound upon the series. This could mean a spin off series or movie.