I don't think there's been a discussion on this specific topic yet, so I just thought I would start one...

Now that it's 99.9% certain (or thereabouts) that we will have a new Narnia film by the end of next year, and it will be an adaptation of The Magician's Nephew — what specific thing are you most hoping to see done well in it? And what specific thing, if any, are you hoping they WON'T do with it?

After a bit of thinking, here are mine to start off with.

Greatest Hope: That they get Aslan "right"

I'm sure I've said this elsewhere recently, but for me, the portrayal of Aslan is the ultimate make-or-break factor. There are just so many things that he needs to convey: power, magnificence, awe, and yet at the same time incredible compassion and understanding and love... basically, "not a tame Lion", not safe, but good. I don't think any previous adaptation of Narnia has ever really managed to bring that across, if it indeed can be. But even though he has relatively little "screen time" in each story, he is ultimately the most important character across the whole series, the only one who appears in all seven of the Chronicles, and the one who ties them all together. And if he comes across as "just" a talking lion, or as some sanctimonious preacher in animal form, the heart of the stories is gone.

I'm not sure exactly what a film should do in order to get Aslan "right", but if it leaves us feeling like Lucy at the end of VDT — that there's something about him that makes you want to know him and be with him, even more than wanting to be in Narnia — that's the sort of thing that's needed. If only he's portrayed well enough, hopefully even viewers who aren't religious, or who maybe have given up on religion, can be left wishing that a divine being like this could exist, even if they aren't (yet?) willing to believe that he does.

Greatest Fear: That they'll change the ending and not have Digory's mother healed

This is something I only just thought of today, and it's awful, but I've a horrible feeling there's some chance they'll do it — mainly because there does seem to be so much cynicism in the world today, even around children's stories and films, and an attitude that even young kids should be taught to "face the facts" and not waste time in dreaming and imagining things that (most people assume) can't happen in this world.

I saw a case in point a few years ago, when I went to a stage production of Bedknobs and Broomsticks in Manchester — the original Disney film was one of my favourites as a child. It was all done really well and was faithful to the movie, with only minor changes, right up till the end... when it was suddenly revealed that almost the whole play that we'd just seen was only a dream had by one of the child characters, and he suddenly sees through it and wakes up where they began. And so Miss Price wasn't a witch, and they didn't go travelling on a flying bed and having all these amazing adventures and finally defeating the Nazi invasion with the help of magic — that was all just a dream, and Miss Price is just an ordinary nice lady, and the war is still on and they're just going to have to pull through together, but oh well, they can. I don't know if I've ever been so gobsmacked and appalled by a plot change (a plot desecration, more like) in my life.  

My point being... what if Gerwig and co. take on a similar mentality, that we can't possibly encourage children to believe that magic — or miracles — can happen and that a dying loved one might, just might, suddenly and wonderfully be made better? After all, Digory does have to resist Jadis's temptation for him to take the apple to heal his mother instead of bringing it to Aslan, and Aslan confirms afterwards that if Digory had done so, his mother would have been healed but ultimately left wishing she could have died in that illness. This is of course the point where Digory gives up all hope of saving her, and realises that "there might be things more terrible even than losing someone you love by death." (Which there are.) And then Aslan speaks again, "almost in a whisper"...

But what if they decided that's the perfect point to make it more "realistic" and not give young viewers such (as cynics would call it) a false hope? What if Digory at that point murmurs "So Mother is going to die...?" "In your world, yes," Aslan remarks (or words to this effect). "But there is another, far greater world beyond yours — even beyond Narnia — where she will live forever... with me. Now come. You must return to your own world..."

And Digory arrives back in London and goes to his mother's room just as she's at the point of death, and she opens her eyes and sees Digory and smiles, and he whispers something like "Mother... it's going to be all right..." and she smiles again and nods slightly, and we can see it in her face that she's looking beyond Digory, beyond this world, and perhaps in her eyes we can see the reflected image of a Lion...

That would be a brilliant let's-change-this-story-to-make-sure-it's-not-TOO-idealistic twist. It would also be another absolute desecration. I don't know why I'm suddenly having visions of them doing it — and I hope I haven't gone and developed the power of prophecy here — but please, dear Aslan, please don't let them do that...