It seemed that Walden's Voyage of the Dawn Treader was trending in the direction of setting up the White Witch up to become the Lady of the Green Kirtle in The Silver Chair. I think that's why it's such a huge concern for Narnia fans.

It would be like if they cast the same actor to play Prince Rabadash in The Horse And His Boy and Rishda Tarkaan in The Last Battle. Sure, Calormenes play a key role in both stories. Even if Rabadash ends up being a successful villain in The Horse And His Boy, I just don't want Netflix to bring the same actor back in The Last Battle. I mean, it would be an easy commercial thing to do, but no. So yeah, please let Rishda be his own villain. You can have two arrogant princes or Tarkaans or whatever in Calormene history but they don't have to be the same one.

@jasmine_tarkheena I don't believe Walden was going in that direction. They had specifically had WW destroyed in the magical scene at Aslan's How, and when she comes to Edmund in the temptation 'dreams', he states that she is dead. [this is from my memory].  There is no way they could have then presented her as a serpent/witch in green, in SC.

Douglas Gresham would not have given Walden a chance to do that; he did not allow Walden to renew its deal to film the books, following the awful changes they made in VDT.  If he had not already done this, he would certainly have cancelled the movie in pre-production, just as he did for the subsequent production company whose new boss decided to turn SC into a girl power movie with Jill as the leading character!

As for Netflix combining the two Calormenes whose names start with R, I think it's highly unlikely. Remember that there are 1300 years between LWW and PC, and about 1400 years between HHB and LB. They will look different, and if there is concern perhaps Rishda will have a name-change!

Posted by: @coracle

I don't believe Walden was going in that direction. They had specifically had WW destroyed in the magical scene at Aslan's How, and when she comes to Edmund in the temptation 'dreams', he states that she is dead. [this is from my memory].  There is no way they could have then presented her as a serpent/witch in green, in SC.

Exactly. It even states in the book that while the White Witch and the Green Lady are of the same crew, they're not the same person. Though I think there was concern that Walden was going cast Tilda Swinton as the Lady of the Green Kirtle, like what BBC did with Barbara Kellerman.

Posted by: @coracle

Douglas Gresham would not have given Walden a chance to do that; he did not allow Walden to renew its deal to film the books, following the awful changes they made in VDT.  If he had not already done this, he would certainly have cancelled the movie in pre-production, just as he did for the subsequent production company whose new boss decided to turn SC into a girl power movie with Jill as the leading character!

Maybe if the White Witch ends up being a really popular villain, which she kind of is, that could be a concern. Now maybe they could still implicate that there is a relationship between the White Witch and the Green Lady. I think it would make more sense than to say that they're the same person.

Posted by: @coracle

As for Netflix combining the two Calormenes whose names start with R, I think it's highly unlikely. Remember that there are 1300 years between LWW and PC, and about 1400 years between HHB and LB.

And there is a 1345 years between LWW and SC. Netflix should make new things. I think we're seeing in a lot of prequels or reboots the old stuff being reinvented. It seems that everyone is related to everyone now in the media. If Netflix wants to have the same actors to play random Calormene soldiers in The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle, that's fine. As for combining the two Calormene leaders that start with R, well, the thought of combining two witches is bad enough. I felt kind of dumb even having to bring it up. I just had to get it out of my system.

Posted by: @coracle

They will look different, and if there is concern perhaps Rishda will have a name-change!

I don't know if Rishda would have a name change, though I'm pretty sure we don't want that. I don't think it will happened, though. Now maybe there could be implications that there is a somehow a relation between Rabadash and Rishda. I mean, there could be some implications like, "Oh, Rishda Tarkaan, he's in direct descent from the Tisroc Rabadash the Peacemaker" or whatever. I don't know.

I think another concern could be is how will they tackle on the issues in each movie. For instance, in The Horse and His Boy, there is thing about Shasta getting abused and abused almost by a fisherman Arsheesh who he calls father. Arsheesh treats Shasta more like a slave, though, and he is about to be sold as a slave to a Tarkaan. He makes this journey to "Narnia and the North" with the talking horse Bree. Then he meets with Aravis Tarkheena, who is also running away with a talking mare, Hwin. They're both running away for a better life. Then the audiences start to connect, "You see that. He's learning more about himself." When Shasta gets to Archenland, and finds out he's a Prince of Archenland, he learns some wise lessons. Then he also hears a voice in the background "Remember who you are." Then he says, "Oh, I am the Prince of Archenland. I was meant to save Archenland and Narnia from invading Calormenes." Then it all goes, "Look how we all tie it together." The "Remember who you are" line might be where Bob and Larry come out to give us the moral of the story. I could see where they could take the issue of slavery to a certain degree.

Posted by: @courtenay

I just REALLY, honestly, hope to goodness Netflix won't throw in any romantic relationships (or even hints of ones) that aren't in the books already

 

Posted by: @courtenay

It's actually quite a relief that Disney, as @icarus mentioned, has avoided giving romantic interests to the main characters in a lot of their recent movies. It makes a nice change from impressing young viewers with the idea that one must fall in love and get married in order to have a "happily ever after" ending. So if the people at Netflix are on the ball, maybe they'll pick up on that point too.

I thought it was nice in the 90's, Disney have the couples take their time with the relationship than the earlier ones did. The early Disney princess movies like Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, they each meet the prince and at an instant, they're in love. So in a sense, the Disney princess movies of the 90's made a nice change from "love at first sight" impression.

In The Little Mermaid, Ariel and Eric had like three days for the relationship to develop.

In Beauty and the Beast, we could never tell how long Belle and the Beast are together. It could have been days or weeks or even months. It took love to tame the savage beast.

In Aladdin, Aladdin and Jasmine have the same three day or could even be a four day relationship. They actually treated each other as special. Jasmine saw Aladdin as more than a "street-rat". So I think a relationship is nice when you realize there is so much more to the person than they seem.

Even in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Phobeus and Esmeralda became a couple, and they're not even in the main characters. It's something we don't see very often. Some might criticize that Quasimodo didn't get the girl, but it was kind of nice for a change.

There were some romance in the recent Disney movies, but not as much. Anna and Elsa were princesses in Frozen, though Elsa didn't have a love interest.

So romance would still be a concern for Narnia. It's like if they want something to please everyone, it doesn't always work. It's like movies would want action for the guys and romance for the gals.

@jasmine_tarkheena

1. These are not Disney movies. 

2. The books are children's stories. 

Posted by: @coracle

1. These are not Disney movies. 

No, but the first two Narnia movies were produced by Disney

2. The books are children's stories. 

Yes. While Shasta and Aravis do end up getting married, it's not until later in life. They're still kids when they first meet (plus their first interaction is not even all that romantic).

It's fine in a fanfic, but more of concern for movies or series.

@jasmine_tarkheena

Disney was not the producer. Walden Media produced them. I have been explaining this to people since the first one - over 16 years!

Disney was distributer and financer, but did not produce either of them, although they had their name all over it! 

I'm not a fan of Disney for my own reasons, and was shocked when Walden took Disney on board.

The very idea that Narnia would turn into a Disney movie was abhorrent, and any hint of that style and formula in future productions is unwelcome. 

Posted by: @coracle

 

The very idea that Narnia would turn into a Disney movie was abhorrent, and any hint of that style and formula in future productions is unwelcome. 

I don't think we would want word for word dialogue straight from the books. That wouldn't be a good adaption. If they're going have to make some changes, it's fine. 

@jasmine_tarkheena of course, it's going to be an adaptation. But the degree and style of the adaptation is the issue. The questions they need to ask themselves are:

1. What is the story about in the book? (themes, ethics, and basic narrative)
2. How far can we make changes to adapt it to a good TV series or movie, without losing the answer to Nr 1?

@coracle

Another question would be do we want to make changes to try to please everybody? 

For instance, there's a way to add tension in Narnia without just being action. I understand that the slow moments of the books like walking and talking wouldn't translate very well to screen. Though there could be a concern where filmmakers would go like, "Well, this is kind of boring." So there is plenty of opportunity to play up the tension.

I hope that Netflix won't add anything in the films which promote causes (or lifestyles) contrary to what is taught in Holy Writ. I  also hope that they treat Narnia with reverence instead of making it always comical like many of the Marvel movies do when they constantly poke at themselves. 

Posted by: @jewel

I hope that Netflix won't add anything in the films which promote causes (or lifestyles) contrary to what is taught in Holy Writ. I  also hope that they treat Narnia with reverence instead of making it always comical like many of the Marvel movies do when they constantly poke at themselves. 

They should at least treat the books with respect, though we expect that they're going to make changes. In another words, try to keep in tone of the books. A big battle scene works better for The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Horse And His Boy, and The Last Battle than it does for The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Magician's Nephew.

As much as we would hope for a perfect adaption of Narnia, we can't expect it. Both the BBC and the Walden adaptions are not perfect. In all consideration, no company is perfect. Hey, even the movies that I love still has some major flaws in it. So as much we would like a perfect adaption of Narnia, we can't expect it to be.

@jasmine_tarkheena - Hard agree there.

My avatar is literally a centaur wielding a massive broadsword, charging into battle.  And yet I hope Netflix makes Narnia less about the battles.  Because then we miss out on things like restoring the statues in the castle in LWW (although there, I'd want to take advantage of the longer running time available from an episodic series so we could show both the battle and the statue restoration in more detail; same deal goes for the Battle + the liberation of Beruna in Prince Caspian), or King Caspian and Lord Bern using their wits and negotiation skills to free Lu/Ed/Reep/Scrubb from the slavers, or, heck the jawdropping reality of watching a world and its inhabitants being created right in front of you (who would want to watch the Creation play out on screen and ask "when's the big battle coming?)".

Another reason I feel this way is because I believe it is critical that any potential accusations of the series glorifying violence be dispelled.  Immediately.  I think it would be important to emphasize that battles are an absolute last resort (and in cases like the Silver Chair + Voyage of the Dawn Treader, it never comes to that.), and when they are necessary/inevitable, they are ugly.  Full stop.  They aren't bloodless and stylized and "fun".  I don't think Lewis wrote them that way (when he didn't put them on the backburner in favour of other narratives).  Of course, this needs to be approached in a tactful, age-appropriate way.  Kids don't need to be beaten over the head with how horrific war is (or even teens/adults, as this isn't a war story), but I think a new series would be a great opportunity for a gentle reminder in that regard.

Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

@coracle

Though there could be a concern where filmmakers would go like, "Well, this is kind of boring." So there is plenty of opportunity to play up the tension.

If the filmmakers were bored by their own product,it would simply be that they used a poor script writer! They would need to rewrite, and reshoot their work, or give it up and let someone else do a better job! On the other hand, a few of the plays that I've been in seemed great fun, but when we watched a video of our own work, we found it tedious! so unfortunately, some film makers don't notice the poor quality of their work, until it gets poor reviews.

it would be like some cringey adaptaptations I've found on You Tube (school shows, local groups who wrote their own scripts straight off the book and didn't understand the words etc).

If you actually mean some film watchers, then clearly Narnia is not aimed at them, and they can choose any one of hundreds of violent war or fantasy movies/serials available to stream or watch in cinemas.

In The Silver Chair, there's a moment where Eustace, Jill, and Puddleglum are heading for the giant Castle of Harfang. There's a way to play up the tension there, making audiences go like, "No, no! This is wrong!" Yes, you know then they're making a wrong choice and should be following the signs.