Posted by: @fantasia

Courtenay, you picked up on the exact same thing that I did. "Obviously LWW is the preeminent one"..... Mr. Stuber  didn't say MN. He didn't say SC. He said LWW. And with that simple little statement, my money is now officially on them starting their Narnia adaptations with LWW. 

Hmmm, I'm not entirely sure, though that's a possibility. I took "preeminent one" as meaning "the one everybody knows about and instantly recognises", rather than "the one we ought to do first". The fact that he goes from name-dropping the most familiar story, to referring to the "whole arc" of the series of books, suggests to me that he could be saying "Obviously there's one story here that everyone knows about, but in fact there's a whole series of books spanning the entire history of this fantasy land, and so we've got to choose where to start from in telling the complete story of Narnia." So it may mean they're planning to start with MN, or at least seriously considering it. I still reckon either LWW or MN is a possibility for Netflix's first Narnia movie / series, and we just won't be able to say for sure until the official announcement is made.

So starting a new franchise from scratch makes total sense. Then again, what is the point of picking up from where the Walden film franchise left off now? I think even fans of the Walden film trilogy would be turned off by the continuity now. So it makes sense to start over.

It would also mean a few things-

1. The logo will look different. I do not think Netflix or whichever company would have the rights to the logos that BBC and Walden have used. So they will have to come up with a different logo. Though I'm not sure if they're going to call it The Chronicles of Narnia or simply just Narnia.

2. The cast will be different. I will sure miss the actors from the Walden film franchise, but I will still appreciate whoever they cast as the characters. Then, I wonder if it is possible that the actors from the Walden film franchise got some kind of role in the new franchise. I'm not saying it would happen, but it's a thought.

3. The look and feel will be different. I am thinking the set will be different. It would be nice if they could get all of the locations in Narnia as well as Archenland and Calormen. You never realize Narnia is a vast world, even more vast than you would imagine.

Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

2. The cast will be different. I will sure miss the actors from the Walden film franchise, but I will still appreciate whoever they cast as the characters. Then, I wonder if it is possible that the actors from the Walden film franchise got some kind of role in the new franchise. I'm not saying it would happen, but it's a thought.

Well, a few people have speculated that they might get some of the actors who played the young Pevensies in the Walden films to come back and reprise the same roles as adults. I don't think that's likely, though. Even if they did manage it, that means that when they do the new casting for the Pevensies as children, they're tied to finding child actors who look a lot like the previous ones so that they'll "match" the now-adult Walden actors, who play a much smaller role overall. 

It's possible that Netflix might give at least a few minor roles to actors who have been in previous Narnia adaptations — I have a vague memory that one or two actors from the BBC TV adaptations got bit parts in the Walden films, though not playing the same characters they were before. But I doubt they'll make a big feature of that, if they do it at all — if it happens, it's more likely to just be an "Easter egg" for long-time fans to spot.

That does remind me, though, that if Netflix wants to start with LWW, the timing is tight for the following three instalments — PC, VDT and SC — because they feature the same child characters over a period of less than three years. That makes me think it might be wiser for Netflix to start with MN to test the waters, so to speak, because the child characters in that one don't reappear as children in any of the later stories, so there's less concern about having to film the sequels  in quick succession.

3. The look and feel will be different. I am thinking the set will be different. It would be nice if they could get all of the locations in Narnia as well as Archenland and Calormen. You never realize Narnia is a vast world, even more vast than you would imagine.

Yes, I'd love to see the rest of the Narnian world on the screen, and to have audiences who aren't familiar with the books realise that there are other lands beyond Narnia, and other worlds accessible from the Wood between the Worlds... But first Netflix will need to get this new series off the ground, which at least looks like it's finally starting to happen!

Posted by: @rose

I actually have a theory about what "breaking the whole arc of it" might mean based on tracking the news over the years... I'll try to post that this weekend if I have time.

I'm intrigued!

I also think there will be some additions, which is kind of nice as long as it really adds to the story. Plus, it's understand that some scenes in the books will have to require some changes or make some tweaks. 

And of course, we could have a whole discussion about on how what additions could really add to the story.

I also think Cair Paravel will look different. Well, I'd actually be fine if Netflix wants Cair Paravel to look different in SC than it does in LWW and HHB (if it is done in that order). It was rebuilt between PC and VDT.

 

Posted by: @col-klink

It does occur to me that Greta Gerwig working on an arc for the whole series is odd if she's only writing/directing two movies. Maybe it really is the executives working on that.  

I went back to read the original story about Gerwig's involvement from The New Yorker where it says Greta Gerwig “has a deal with Netflix to write and direct at least two films based on C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia.” [emphasis mine]

Seems like they were intentional with their wording. I think it's very likely she's involved with mapping out the series and may end up creatively involved in more than two films. That's of course, the series actually gets that far  

You know, in a way, I would much prefer it if Gerwig were the one working on the "arc" of the whole series since she's a writer and one who seems to take an intellectual approach to her work, and this just sounds like a job for a writer. On the other hand, it seems like the message of all her movies is "life can never be perfect but it still be pretty great" and at the end of your average Narnia book, life is pretty much perfect, so I have a hard time imagining her doing an adaptation that's not a deconstruction on some level. In that case, I don't want her to have that much influence on the whole series. But maybe she wants to break away from that "life can't be perfect" theme. I don't know. Or maybe Stubbs and the other Netflix higherups are good storytellers too and I shouldn't assume they'd be less good at coming up with an arc than Gerwig. I really don't know. But at least we're hearing people talk about doing Narnia now, unlike how it was with Matthew Aldrich. 

Posted by: @reepicheep775

If I was being pessimistic, I would say this is giving me flashbacks to the Walden films, particularly VDT, trying to contort the books into a serialized narrative, which they just don't have.

Yeah, that's kind of been in the back of my head too. 

Again I think this is less to do with creating a serialized narrative and more to do with trying to figure out and understand either the best order to tell the stories in or simply just the narrative that exists across each book. The way I've thought about it is really thinking about "breaking the whole arc" in terms of "breaking a code". It's about understanding and deciphering something that already exists.

Posted by: @rilianix

It's about understanding and deciphering something that already exists.

I also get the impression from the quote that Stubbs is talking about something that he sees as already existing in the source material. That's kind of why I'm eager to learn more about even though I don't necessarily agree (not without hearing more anyway) in the same way I'm interested in reading posts from Narniawebbers about the books with which I don't necessarily agree.

Well, I think Greta Gerwig recognizes that Narnia is not some "overarching narrative" but just like glimpses of what happens in the world of Narnia. Though it seemed that Walden had kind of turned into a connecting narrative, notably Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where they created the Green Mist to lead into the Lady of the Green Kirtle in The Silver Chair. History may have a way to repeat itself and I don't think that should be one of them.

I think Greta Gerwig should at least make Narnia unique by not only following the books closely, but be able to stand out from the BBC TV series and the Walden film franchise.

I don't really see any way they can start the series with two films without one of them being LWW. They obviously won't continue where Walden stopped since Disney has those films on their rival streaming service, and the first movie is over 15 years old already, which means people who watched it as children could be parents themselves by the time a new one came out. 

It feels difficult to separate LWW from Prince Caspian due to the ages involved, which makes me believe it will come after LWW, but for a variety of reasons I suspect the two Gerwig is working on will be are Magician's Nephew and the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It allows them to start chronologically, which, like it or not (I don't), has become the official order. It lets them start fresh instead of purely retreading ground the previous series already traveled. And it's a wonderful story and character piece that has a tight narrative connection with Jadis uniting the two adventures. Also, Stuber's quote about LWW reads to me as if he might be suggesting that LWW may not be the first one worked on. Just my thoughts, though.

Are we sure that Netflix still wants to adapt all seven books? Because the only way I can think of to give them a good "arc" would be to only adapt, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Include any of the other stories and it becomes lumpy. 

Posted by: @col-klink

Are we sure that Netflix still wants to adapt all seven books? Because the only way I can think of to give them a good "arc" would be to only adapt, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Include any of the other stories and it becomes lumpy. 

Yes! I’d go as far as to say Netflix wants to adapt more than just seven Narnia films/series. I just don’t see a compelling reason why Netflix would be strategically planning to only do 3 films at this early stage. They want this to be a success for years to come!

@col-klink an interesting question, but surely all a matter of dollars.

If it's a roaring success, I'm sure they will want to spin as much content as they can from their purchase.... If it's a flop, I'm sure they'll cancel it just as fast as they cancel any other show.

For example, it was interesting to note that this week Netflix decided to cancel "Shadow and Bone" after just 2 seasons, when just a few months prior they were chatting about not only doing all of the books in that series, but also doing spin-off stories about other characters set in the same universe.

I guess that's just way of this business though.

Posted by: @justin_orman

They obviously won't continue where Walden stopped since Disney has those films on their rival streaming service, and the first movie is over 15 years old already, which means people who watched it as children could be parents themselves by the time a new one came out. 

I'm quite frankly disappointed about that. I've waited 13 years for a sequel to TVotDT. Walden's movies are rather nostalgic for me, but it doesn't seem all that long ago that those other movies came out; certainly not long enough to reboot the whole series. I suppose that it would be impractical to hire the same actors to act the adult versions of themselves, though it would be pretty cool since they're about the right age for THaHB.