How will Netflix order the Narnia series?
IDK. 6 TV & 1 film. That’s my current guess.

(2021?)
Season One -
‘The Magician’s Nephew’
& ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’

(2022?)
Season Two -
‘The Horse and His Boy’
& ‘Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia’

(2023?)
Season Three -
‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’
& ‘The Silver Chair’

(2024?)
Original Movie -
‘The Last Battle: The Chronicles of Narnia’

I would LIKE them to stick to traditional order but I think they WILL go with chronological order. Which is fine too.

Being something of a publication order purist, I'd like it if the went that route. But, I'd honestly be surprised if they did. If your going to reboot and start from scratch doing chronological order probably makes the most sense.

My only real problem with doing it in chronologically is I don't like having anything inbetween LWW and PC, on a thematic and story level having them back to back make the most sense. So if it was up to me I'd order it thusly:

MN
LWW
PC
VDT
SC
HHB
LB

The placement of HHB is a little awkward, but where else are you going to put it.

Now that I'm thinking more about it, it's also possible for them to do timeskips, where they keep bouncing back and forth between stories, years/ages, etc. Like technically they COULD start with Last Battle if they really wanted to, constantly cutting back and forth between LB and they other stories, like they are remembering the past. Not sure if I would like that, but it occurred to me that they could do things out of order.

I don't know how they do chronological order and not ruin LWW. I am, also, a publication order purist and that is the reason why. If they do MN first then we, the audience, know immediately when Edmund meets the white witch, who she is and that she is not to be trusted and so Edmund trusting her and going to her is going to be much harder to pull off.

Also, MN being first ruins the magicalness of the four entering Narnia. We know all of it. We know about the wardrobe. We know about the lamppost. We know about the talking animals. We know that Aslan is a lion and who he is as the creator and the power there. We just know way too much. LWW was meant to be read first. Everything leans on that story and what Aslan did for Edmund. That is the entire game and everything about how that story would be done would have to be changed if they did MN first.

LWW has to be first, in my opinion, and MN is completely and utterly the prequel to LB, so those two have to be the final two. When they have HaHB doesn't matter to me, but those three have an order. LWW is first and MN followed by LB have to be last. That has to be kept as is, in my opinion, or you lose the integrity of the story.

Meaning if they do MN first, then they will have to change LWW in such a way as to make it not the same story.

I don't know how they do chronological order and not ruin LWW. I am, also, a publication order purist and that is the reason why. If they do MN first then we, the audience, know immediately when Edmund meets the white witch, who she is and that she is not to be trusted and so Edmund trusting her and going to her is going to be much harder to pull off.

Also, MN being first ruins the magicalness of the four entering Narnia. We know all of it. We know about the wardrobe. We know about the lamppost. We know about the talking animals. We know that Aslan is a lion and who he is as the creator and the power there. We just know way too much. LWW was meant to be read first. Everything leans on that story and what Aslan did for Edmund. That is the entire game and everything about how that story would be done would have to be changed if they did MN first.

Hm. You're essentially suggesting that they follow Lewis' own train of thought while writing the books and mentally exploring the world he'd created. That's actually really interesting.
Those in favor of the MN first would probably argue that MN would provide a new experience for Narnia viewers, whereas LWW is just the classic story that everyone knows. However, the fact that the Walden movies introduced a lot of people to the books seems to suggest that this isn't necessarily true...
There, I'm done arguing with myself. My desire to see new Narnia content (not to mention the epic Charn battle) is pitted against what I want the series to do for people who haven't seen/read Narnia before. I'm still trying to decide here, but you gave some good arguments!
That said, I highly suspect that they'll do chronological, just based on Gresham's comments early this year.

Yeah, i am arguing that we follow Lewis' line of thought. They will have to change everything about how LWW feels if they do MN first. I think they probably will do it first too, but the cost of that is completely changing everything about how the four main children of the story interact with the world because the audience will already know way too much. They will probably have to have the white witch as a point of view character and once you go there, how does Aslan's death scene work, does the white witch become the big bad of the series, do the kids become secondary to that. It just changes really big and important things about the series, especially about the hopeful, wonder of visiting Narnia.

I, also, think they will probably do it. Though the movies were 15 years ago, so I don't think that is why anyone knows these stories. At least that shouldn't be why they make this decision.

I always recommend people read the books in the original published order. The best introduction to the world of Narnia is through LWW. Aslan has to be a mystery to the reader. The story works because of that mystery and sense of wonder. If you introduce readers through MN first, that mystery is lost.

Having said that, at this point, most people who would be watching this series from Netflix will know the basic premise on some level - particularly LWW. That story is head and shoulders more popular than any of the others. I would not be opposed to starting the series with MN since it is much less known and would be a fantastic way to establish the world of Narnia for a new audience.

I know...I'm basically arguing both sides. Oh well.

Interesting question — I must admit I'm yet another one who can argue both sides! When it comes to reading the books, I'm a big fan of publication order, or at least reading LWW first. Even apart from the fact that there are a lot of plot elements that work better in LWW if you haven't read MN, LWW is the most famous of all the Narnia stories (it's the one just about everyone can name, even if they haven't read any of the books or seen any of the films) and that in itself would make it an obvious choice for Netflix to start with.

However, there's the fact that although the Walden film was released nearly 15 years ago (gosh, that long already?? ), it was very popular and gets replayed quite regularly on TV (especially over Christmas/New Year) and is still well known. So Netflix will be up against the we've-seen-all-this-before factor. Whenever they get to it, they're going to have to make LWW feel fresh enough and different enough from the Walden version that fans of that will still be eager to watch it and will be likely to enjoy it.

(I'm not a great fan of the Walden film myself — I thought it was very well done as a film, but somehow missed a lot of the spirit of the original book — so I'm looking forward to a new adaptation. But there are plenty of people who love that film and winning them over with a new version may be a tough job!)

That's why, although normally I'd argue for LWW to come first, I can also see a lot of good sense in starting with MN. This is one of the Chronicles that has never been adapted for the screen in any form, so for those who haven't read the books, it is a totally new story. Plenty of people are now at least somewhat familiar with LWW, but I would guess far fewer know anything about Narnia's own "origin story". So it could be a way of sparking the audience's enthusiasm for this new version of Narnia. As I said, I can see both sides here and if I were the director of this new Netflix project, I'm not quite sure which tack I'd take! But I guess it's all speculation until we hear more from the producers themselves...

New idea: Netflix releases their first Narnia adaptation with LWW as a 3 hour-30 minute-long miniseries. Then release an 8-hour-long Season 1 with HHB & PC, a 9-hour-long Season 2 with VDT & SC, and then a 7-hour-long Season 3 with MN & LB. Those pairs of books do go great together.

LWW is strong enough to stand on its own. It also needs to be seen first. PC & VDT need to be spaced at least a year apart from each other. SC takes place mere weeks after the latter. MN works as a great beginning to the final Season. HHB and LB bookend the Narnia Season story with Calormen conflicts.

If Netflix had no intention of making Narnia movies shown in theaters worldwide, they could just make double-season after double-season, year after year for the next 5 years. So...

‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ (2021)

NARNIA: Season 1 (2022)
‘The Horse and His Boy’ &
‘Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia’

NARNIA: Season 2 (2023)
‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’
& ‘The Silver Chair’

NARNIA: Season 3 (2024)
‘The Magician’s Nephew’ & ‘The Last Battle’

What about Season 1 being The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and The Horse and His Boy, then following publication order? That way we can get the novelty of something that hasn't adapted to screen before as well as seeing how wonderful Pevensies reign was before it goes to ruin in Prince Caspian in Season 2.

For me this is a little bit tricky....

I did a bit of number crunching, and this will be the fifth onscreen adaptation of LWW, third of PC and VDT, second of SC and will mark the first time HHB, MN and LB have ever been adapted for the screen.

This series needs to be able to stand out on its own right out of the gate, and an easy way to do that will be to start with the Magician's Nephew, as something that's never been done before. If MN can be adapted really well, people will stick around, wondering how they'll do LWW.

On the other hand, so much of the magic of the series does come from reading the novels in the order that Lewis wrote them. Such as Aslan's introduction in LWW - we were introduced to Aslan at the same time as the Pevensies, and their first meeting took place through the kids' eyes. Which truly feels more special to me than the quick intro he got in MN where Lewis assumed the reader already knew who Aslan was, even if it was a prequel.

It's tricky.

I would be utterly astounded if Netflix didn't start with LWW.

Sure, the Chronicles of Narnia have name recognition, but LWW is an absolute classic of children's literature and possibly one of the most famous children's books of all time.

They will want to come out of the blocks strongly, and therefore you don't leave your star player on the bench.

I would be utterly astounded if Netflix didn't start with LWW.

Sure, the Chronicles of Narnia have name recognition, but LWW is an absolute classic of children's literature and possibly one of the most famous children's books of all time.

They will want to come out of the blocks strongly, and therefore you don't leave your star player on the bench.

I would argue that starting with MN would better serve Netflix's universe in the long run though.

That way when LWW comes around (along with peak casual interest) there is already a series or movie in the back catalogue. It gives mainstream audiences with a brand new story with some recognizable characters and elements to hopefully engage them. But it'll show that Narnia isn't just about the Pevensie children (a problem Disney/Walden faced) and therefore provides a smoother transition for future books.

The world of Narnia needs to be enchanting enough to the point where it's as much a character as Aslan, Puddleglum, and Lucy - maybe even more. Aldrich and Netflix will need to be very intentional about this.

I think there'll be a higher chance of that happening with having MN released before you handcuff yourself to following LWW directly with PC - well regarded as the least liked and uncinematic in the series.

Also, in terms of sales, MN is the second best-selling book in the series.

The Magician's Nephew
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Prince Caspian
The Voyage of The Dawn Treader

The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

The Horse and His Boy
Untitled Narnia Series

Not sure in what format they'll release them but I do think they'll have HHB last. It's a natural way to introduce more Narnia spinoffs with basically an official Narnia spinoff!

I'm more open to Narnia spinoffs than I assume most would be here on NarniaWeb. But I'd only accept them if all 7 books have been adapted and Netflix has proven themselves trustworthy.