I haven't thought of this one. I know that most adaptions of Narnia have started with The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. I think if Netflix start with The Magician's Nephew, it could be a different take and it could make it stand out from the others. Besides, it's something we've never seen done on screen before. The only adaption of The Magician's Nephew we've had are from audio dramas, the BBC Radio 4 and Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. So I think Netflix could make a franchise stand out if they start with The Magician's Nephew on screen.

I personally would love to see them do "The Magician's Nephew" first, it's one of my top favorites from the series, and it's not been adapted before! There's just so many cool things I would love to see in visual format; The Wood Between the Worlds, the dead world of Charn, Jadis telling the children how it got in that state (a good opportunity as she's narrating to show it), the fight at the lamppost, and of course.... the creation of Narnia itself! I won't deny it's this book I am most excited about finally being adapted to the screen!

It would be different, yes. It would be the franchise that introduced answers to the questions posed by LWW, before the questions were asked.
How is that an improvement?  LWW would have lost a lot of mystery and excitement. I agree with decarus's post earlier (well stated, @decarus)

Even though my set of Narnia books has The Magician’s Nephew as number one I think it would be much better if the Netflix series starts with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The beginning of the story and the series works the best magic with Lucy Pevensie discovering the wardrobe. The effect of the magic of the stories may be diminished if something is put before the first few chapters of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  The wardrobe is essential in introducing people to Narnia, and that applies to all adaptations, including TV series.

I've said this before but if Netflix is smart, they'll adapt MN first.

1) Chronologically it's the first story in the series, and if they're going to be treating the book series as an overall cinematic/tv universe with spinoff potential, it makes sense to start there. 

2) It's the only book that could be adapted as a one-off, where you wouldn't be hampered by choosing specific actors that would have to come back or would have to be used as the basis for the younger actors when it comes time for them to be cast (like the Pevensies in HAHB). 

True, there's Aslan and Jadis, but both could be fairly easily recast. Voices for CGI characters get changed all the time, and Jadis' change of appearance could be handwaved away as her wicked magic affecting her visage. 

3) LWW is undoubtedly the most popular book in the series, in terms of general audiences at least. That's why it's important they don't adapt it first. I know this logic seems somewhat backwards but keep in mind, look at what happened with the Walden movies.

Because LWW made over $700 million as the first movie, every subsequent one seemed like a failure, even though PC and VOTDT actually had very consistent returns ($419 million and $415 million respectively). 

4) In addition to this, it also makes sense to adapt MN first as a kind of pilot and if the numbers aren't up to what Netflix are expecting they can not only reconfigure the elements of the show, but also bring out the big guns with LWW as the next adaptation.

Well, what if LWW was made first, followed by HHB then MN? What a change that would be! LWW would still be first, but instead of being followed by PC, it would be followed by a midquel then a prequel.

There would be the best known story of the chronicles at the start. Then there would be a story about what happened during the Pevensie's reign. Then there would be a prequel where Professor Digory Kirke could tell the Pevensies about the origin of the wardrobe perhaps in flash back form. Then audiences would be like, "So that's where the wardrobe came from!"

Prequels or origin stories have been pretty popular in the Hollywood industry (like Oz: The Great And Powerful or even Wicked that is coming out this Christmas). So I wouldn't see why LWW would be first, and MN was done as a prequel, even if it was done a bit earlier than publication.

Firstly, I believe the Magician's Nephew IMDB page was there before Netflix got the rights. You can also still see one for Silver Chair that never got made.

I did vote for MN reason being that it is still a dream for me personally to see it adapted on screen and I have a strong inkling Greta is adapting this one first. I do have the screenplay adapted for the stage as Coracle mentioned. I have it in my screenplays collection so no doubt there have been stage productions, but I haven't seen it yet. I do understand where everyone is coming from with wanting LWW to be the first adapted. It was the first book published and we lose the mystery of a lamppost being in Narnia in the first place to new coming audiences.

I do hope that Netflix adds the Walden versions ahead of The new Narnia releases to their platform just so newcomers can come across them. I feel the vast majority of watchers will already be familiar with Narnia whether they read the books or not. I do trust Greta with whatever she's going to do.

Just ressurecting this thread, as there is a question I've been pondering on this subject for a while now...

As much as I'm a Publication Order purist, and fully understand all of the narrative arguments that support the idea that LWW should be read first, when it comes to the film adaptations, does it really matter as much?

• Would many people really be going into a MN adaptation without any prior knowledge of one of the most famous children's stories of all time? (LWW)

• If someone watches Andrew Adamson's LWW and then watches Greta Gerwig's MN, is that not the same thing as publication order anyway? Is it really all that important that the two films be canonically set in the same cinematic universe?

• Assuming that GG does end up doing both MN and LWW eventually.. once the two films are both available to watch independently on Netflix in any order one chooses, does the order they were released on the platform actually matter?

Definitely MN. Not only is it the first book, chronologically, but it also would herald an entirely fresh look at the series, when MN has never been filmed before. Besides, who gets to play Jadis the White Witch, will make more sense in a second film, once they do film LWW. In MN we see what makes her what she is - an arrogant, ambitious ruler, who would sacrifice all of her own people as well as maltreating the enemy, just to get her own way. 

There is also a very great danger, in my opinion, after 3 or 4 versions, both cartoon and live film, that LWW as a 5th version might look somewhat reworked. 

I also feel like MN should be first. It feels like a huge risk to film LWW first considering Andrew Adamson's version. I don't think canonically the films need to exist in the same universe either, probably could debate that for days on end but Greta needs to introduce her style of adaptation first and MN is a good opportunity. 

On the other hand, LWW could offer more legitimacy to what Greta Gerwig wants to do since it is so well known and MN is not. I don't think we'll truly know though until probably 4th quarter this year or 1st quarter 2026. 

Posted by: @scientific_archer

I don't think we'll truly know though until probably 4th quarter this year or 1st quarter 2026. 

You've given some interesting thoughts - I hope we know sooner than that though!  I would like to see MN this time too though, as we already have three film or television versions of LWW that exist in full and glimpses of the 1960s one on YouTube - I'm keen to see Narnia come to life from a different perspective and with a different introduction.  I think starting with MN could also enhance and strengthen the chances of more of the series that haven't been brought to life before or only limited versions could be brought to life on film.

Like I've said before, I'm heavily in favour of publication order — or at least LWW first — when reading the books for the first time, but I'm definitely open to the films being done in chronological order. It makes the most sense for directors / producers aiming to adapt the entire series of seven books and should be helpful in keeping the overall story straight and consistent... which, after all, is something Lewis himself didn't manage to do as he went along.  

Of course, having the films in chronological order does reinforce the idea that MN is "the first" in the series, which is something that irks many of us fans of the books. But as the books themselves have been printed with their numbers in chronological order — MN as book 1, LWW as book 2 and so on — for over 40 years now, that ship sailed a long time ago, so to speak.

It's still apparent nevertheless that LWW is THE most famous book in the series by a long way, the one that just about everyone can name (it does have a unique and catchy title!), and the one that most people think of first when they hear the name "Narnia" — as witness the fact that every previous attempt at adapting the Chronicles has started with LWW. So if Gerwig's adaptation starts with MN, that will certainly make people sit up and take notice, at the very least, since it's a story we haven't seen on the screen before.

One or two people in these discussions have suggested that if Gerwig starts with MN, it'll mean she (or a successive director) will need to "change" things in LWW and therefore it just won't be done right. I'm not sure where that idea is coming from. There IS a huge discrepancy between MN and LWW, but it'll be there no matter which order the books are adapted in. That is, the difference between what the White Witch claims about herself at the crucial point in LWW (in her verbal confrontation with Aslan), and what we learn of her origins and her arrival in Narnia in MN.

Putting it briefly, a key plot point in LWW is that the Witch claims the right to take Edmund's life in return for his treachery, and asserts that if she's denied her "right to a kill", Narnia will be destroyed. Aslan affirms everything she says, including her claim that she was given this role by Aslan's father, the Emperor, under the Deep Magic that the Emperor put into Narnia at the very beginning. We're never given a really clear explanation of this, frustratingly enough, but it's vital to the plot, because it's why Aslan offers himself as the sacrifice in Edmund's place — which then invokes the Deeper Magic that the Witch didn't know about, breaking the Stone Table and reversing death itself. And of course, that's vital to the underlying Christian theme of the books, where Aslan offering his life to save one wrongdoer echoes the idea of Jesus offering his life to save all wrongdoers.

But in MN, Jadis comes from a world entirely outside of Narnia, and although she is there at its beginning, she's not given any role of executing traitors (and the Emperor is not even mentioned; we only have Aslan and no hints of anything like the Trinity in this story). She's filled with hatred and hostility towards Aslan from the moment she first hears his song; once the sun is created and she can see the Lion, she flings the iron bar at his head as soon as he's close enough; and when that fails to harm him or even bother him in any way, she flees in terror. When we next see her, she's just entered the sacred garden illegally and stolen an apple that makes her immortal (and gives her eternal misery). Aslan never speaks to her throughout this story; all we're told is that she's fled into the north and will remain there, "growing stronger in dark Magic", but we're assured she will not be able to come near Narnia again so long as the tree of protection is growing. No mention of the Stone Table and how it was created; no opportunity for Jadis / the Witch to be appointed as what Mr Beaver cynically calls "the Emperor's hangman". Definitely no sense that she was meant to have a role in Narnia at the start but she became too ambitious and decided to rule the place, which is what we were told in LWW.

I honestly cannot think of a way of reconciling those two very different accounts of Jadis / the White Witch, and if Greta Gerwig or any other film-makers can square them logically and still keep the essentials of both stories, well, I can only say that'll be an act of genius. As I said, whether MN or LWW gets made first, the problem is still there.  

Back on topic, though, I totally agree with @icarus above — I would guess that probably 80-90% of viewers of the new Narnia adaptation will already have read the book of LWW, or have watched the 2005 film and/or previous adaptations, or at least will have some awareness of Narnia through pop culture. And what are the things just about everyone is most likely to know already about Narnia? That there's a passage into this magical world through a wardrobe; that there's a lamp-post in the middle of a wood; that Narnia is under the spell of an evil Witch who is defeated by a Lion (who is Narnia's version of Jesus and who therefore of course dies and comes back to life); and that there's a mysterious old Professor who seems to know more about Narnia than he lets on and it's hinted he's been there himself. Yes, all the things that there are spoilers for in MN.

The majority of viewers, seriously, will already know about those, unless they're under 5 years old or have been living under a rock (or possibly on another planet) since 1950. Therefore, I'm another one who really isn't worried about MN being made first this time and giving away all the mysteries in LWW.

(Honestly, I'm reminded of a satirical magazine that did a comic strip send-up of Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy, back when those films came out in the early 2000s. I just remember their spoof of The Two Towers included a frame where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli meet the resurrected Gandalf the White and exclaim "Amazing! Gandalf! We thought you were dead!" To which the wizard responds with something like "Yes, I guess it would be a surprise to anyone who hasn't read the 50-year-old books and hasn't seen all the promo posters showing Ian McKellen with the three of you!" )

Well, I'm sure we'll hear an announcement before too long. Though I would be concern that if they start with MN and go in chronological order, they turn Narnia into an overarching narrative, which I don't think was CS Lewis's intentions. The Walden films kind of tried to do that when they added the Green Mist in VDT as a set up for the Lady of the Green Kirtle in SC.

So an overarching narrative of Narnia would be MN first, then LWW that ends on a cliffhanger with the end of LWW being moved to the end of HHB, followed by PC, VDT, SC, and LB.

There might be an advantage of starting with MN film wise. It will give us something that we've never had seen before on screen. Perhaps it will give the franchise a new perspective.

I'm leaning towards The Magician's Nephew to be the first, to set the scene.

The trailers might need to have a bit of narration: 'You know the story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe about blah, blah, blah. Now, here's the enchanting story of Narnia's origin...' I don't know how not to make it sound cheesy, but you get the gist! It helps those less familiar with the other Narnia stories to wean into this kind of world-building tale before we get to more familiar territory with LWW as the second film.

I'm also just rather excited to finally see this book on the big (or smallish) screen, and kind of will it to be the first one for that reason 🙃 .

Is there some way of presenting each of these Narnia Chronicles so that each book would be a stand-alone Narnia tale? Yes, apart from the place, & Aslan, himself, familiar characters do come into some of them, but they also leave. Digory Kirke as a boy and Digory Kirke about 40 years later, are basically two different people, and when LWW starts, there is no real connection between them. Professor Kirke is not referred to in LWW by his first name, for instance. And for children, especially, they sometimes can't believe that their "oldies" were children, once, themselves. 

That is one reason why I'd love to see MN done first. Especially the story of Digory and his mother, and the apple which revived her, but was poison for Jadis to eat, when it was stolen property, basically. Digory does plant the apple core, with the rings around the tree. Perhaps, any explanation for the wood the Wardrobe in LWW can be left for the finale of that film. 

Another is, the pre-WW1 attitudes of both Jadis and Uncle Andrew, so devoted to technology and get-rich-quick schemes. The story of Charn's deterioration under Jadis' ancestors, her inhuman attitude to her own sister's followers, and her alarming, win-at-all-costs attitude, coupled with Jadis' knowledge of "The Deplorable Word". "I poured out my armies like water" said Jadis. Yes, in Charn, and even in London, she was a terrifying figure to be let loose in Aslan's brand-new Narnia.

But most of all, I want to see that disastrous Charn sun, as that silent world was nothing but a ruin.