Posted by: @rose

I actually think that PC has one of the most intense character moments in the entire series. What Lucy has to do, choosing to follow Aslan whether her siblings listen to her or not, is extremely brave of her.

True enough, that's a great character moment, but it's just a shame that it comes in a story that is fundamentally Prince Caspian's story.

When I said earlier that LWW is for me fundamentally Lucy's story, it's because all of the key moments of the Narrative Act Structure are driven by her. The "inciting incident" is when Lucy discovers the wardrobe, the "call to action" is when Lucy convinces the others to stay in Narnia and rescue Mr Tumnus, the emotional highpoint is Aslan's sacrifice (which is primarily conveyed to the reader from Lucy's point of view) and the overall dramatic resolution to the plot is when they defeat the White Witch and rescue Mr Tumnus (i.e. it's not when they rescue Edmund). All of that to me ultimately makes it Lucy's story above all - it's her agency which drives all of the key parts of the story.

When it comes to Prince Caspian the book however, the above is all true of Prince Caspian himself. It's the birth of his cousin which sets the plot in motion, and it's his restoration to the throne which resolves the plot at the end. The Pevensies largely feel like passive observers to proceedings. They don't even choose to come into Narnia to begin with - it's Caspian's action of blowing the horn which draws them into Narnia.

Of course, the huge flashback issue does kind of prevent PC from ever truly feeling 100% satisfying as being Caspian's tale outright... But that's probably a discussion for another topic. Ultimately though it is one of the primary reasons why it's really hard to pin down a narrative voice for PC, and therefore the main reason why I think it would struggle to connect with a director interested in focused character storytelling.

However.... If we were talking about a director with more of a focus on Politics and Mythology in the "Game of Thrones" mould, then I could see Prince Caspian being right up their street - it's got some of the richest lore, mythology and world building of the series, it's got palace intrigue, betrayal and back stabbing, and it's got battles, duels and action a plenty.... It just for me the story doesn't really have the strong lead character through-line to the narrative in the same way that the other books do.

Posted by: @icarus

True enough, that's a great character moment, but it's just a shame that it comes in a story that is fundamentally Prince Caspian's story.

I see the argument about the narrative act structure, but I've always thought of PC as being predominantly Lucy and Caspian's story. For LWW, I would also say that it's predominantly Lucy and Edmund's story. For me, this boils down to the fact that we spend a significant amount of time reading from the POV of those characters during the book, and neither feels like "the main character" in a typical sense.

And while Caspian is the titular character, one of the criticisms I've seen about why people like PC less than the other Chronicles is that we spend so much time with him in the first half of the book, and then he's either not there at all or mostly standing on the sidelines for the rest of the story. And I think the title definitely sets people up for that confusion (a title suggested by the publisher and one that Lewis didn't particularly like, for he felt it didn't capture the theme of the story). When you approach the story as both Caspian and Lucy's story, a lot of that confusion is lifted, I think.

I don't know if Greta Gerwig would want to adapt PC (I'm perhaps a bit biased because I like the story so much), but I don't see any of this as being a deterrent for her in a narrative sense.

I guess this is straying from the topic of which Narnia book Gerwig would like to adapt yet again, but I wanted to mention that something I liked about her Little Women was that she tried to give all the main characters' stories equal weight. Of course, that's something she inherited from the source material, not something she came up with herself. But it's noteworthy that she didn't change it. Every other movie adaptation of the book just focuses on Jo with random dramatic moments for the other sisters popping up every now and then. So, I don't think she'd have a problem per se with the Narnia books not having a single main character.  

I asked this question on the NarniaWeb Twitter account, and one of the responses was something I hadn't thought of yet:

https://twitter.com/cousinmoon/status/1608637669948682242

I think this makes a lot of sense, especially if Netflix is looking for Narnia to fill the void of Stranger Things. It's also always been awkward to know when to include MN and HHB in any adaptation of the series, and following chronological order and adapting them in the near-term would prevent disrupting the continuum with the Pevensies, Eustace, and Jill later on. And since both MN and HHB are outliers, adapting them as films rather than series may work better from a budgetary standpoint.

Plus, we'd get TWO new book adaptations we've never seen before in the near-ish future! I'm sold.

@rose Those are actually my two favorite Narnia books, so I'm kind of attracted to the idea, but I really don't get how they're standalones. Both are full of references to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I can't imagine doing them in a series without it. Then again, LWW is the one Narnia book of which the average person has heard, so maybe they could get away with it.  

Posted by: @col-klink

Those are actually my two favorite Narnia books, so I'm kind of attracted to the idea, but I really don't get how they're standalones.

By standalone, I think they mean outlier (which I would agree with).

I should probably clarify, just in case anyone is confused by what I'm saying here: MN as a film comes first,  LWW follows and begins the television series, HHB is released as a film, and then the television series continues all the way through LB. That would have everything in chronological order, although theoretically HHB could be released later on.

Maybe I'm blinded by my desire to see adaptations of MN and HHB, but it definitely seems conceivable to me that Netflix would map things out in this way. It also does a great job sprinkling new stories among the stories that have already been adapted by Walden.

@rose sounds good, except that MN beings shown first is an issue. I suppose a disclaimer can precede it. (And yes, I know that many people would already know LWW, and wouldn't be meeting it 'second'). 

For people less familiar with MN, but very familiar with LWW, it will be interesting to discover how Narnia began, and the connections like the lamppost.

Posted by: @coracle

@rose sounds good, except that MN beings shown first is an issue. I suppose a disclaimer can precede it.

I was one of the unlucky ones who read MN first as a result of HarperCollins reordering them and frankly I'm still traumatized by it but I don't think I mind Netflix starting off with MN very much. Mainly because a) the books are still regrettably sold in chronological order, and b) so many people have seen the 2005 film at this point, and if they haven't, chances are they've encountered Narnian lore in other ways.

One thing that does give me pause is wondering if audiences will get attached to young Digory and Polly and thus be less keen on the Pevensies (this was an issue for me when I read the books as a child!), but they could still be included in flashbacks and return for the reunion in LB.

And like you said, there are a lot of benefits to starting with MN: it really highlights the world of Narnia and the wonder of Aslan, who is not a wise old mentor type of character, but rather a being so powerful that he sings the earth and the stars into existence.

And imagine the way that these lines would set up the rest of the series!

"I wish we had someone to tell us what all those places are," said Digory.

"I don't suppose they're anywhere yet," said Polly. "I mean, there's no one there, and nothing happening. The world only began to-day."

"No, but people will get there," said Digory. "And then they'll have histories, you know."

Sorry, getting ahead of myself.

Just to be different... I thought maybe if I was hiring Greta Gerwig, I would hire her to do SC and HHB. I personally, see those as small enough story line to fit in a movie without compromising my favorites parts of the book. Those two focus on the themes I could see Greta wanting to develop. I know this would mean they would already have to start their series before her movies would come out, but, maybe possibly she is busy with other projects we currently do not know about and they just want to sign her on before it gets too late. They could be hiring another director for the tv series and they start with back to back seasons of MN and LWW. HHB movie comes out, PC and VDT series, and then SC movie shortly follows. LB series comes out.