They could be testing things out.

For a series, there could be opportunity for things that are told as a backstory in the books actually happening.

We might be able to see Jadis battling with her sister in Charn and the Deplorable Word as opposed to a backstory. Another could be what happened between The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, so we might be able to see King Gale fighting a dragon at the Lone Islands, Moonwood the Hare sighting by Caldron Pool, and Queen Swanwhite looking into a forest pool and her beauty reflecting. Another we might be able to see is Aravis's motiviation to runaway. Also, opprunity to see Bacchus and Silenus in Prince Caspian, and Aslan freeing the school children. And Caspian fighting the Northern Giants. And what about Prince Rilian disappearing instead of a backstory? We could also see the Calormenes coming into Narnia in The Last Battle... see Emeth's encounter with Aslan instead of a backstory.

Is it possible he has a pilot script for a different series? (I'm not saying it is. A Narnia script would make sense. But he has written other things.)

Matthew Aldrich was hired by Netflix to work on Narnia almost two and a half years ago... If he hadn't managed to crank out a pilot script at the bare minimum in that time I'd be having some serious words with him as his employer! 🙂

Posted by: @col-klink

Is it possible he has a pilot script for a different series? (I'm not saying it is. A Narnia script would make sense. But he has written other things.)

I thought about that, but I think it's very unlikely. This program took place early this year, only a little over a year and a half since Aldrich was hired on. (IMO, it's probable he attended in 2021 rather than 2020, based on timelines.) For him to suddenly shift to an entirely different television project at Netflix, and have the materials necessary for said project, is doubtful. Plus, Matthew Aldrich has no prior experience with television, which also makes him an odd pick for another project.

To be honest, it makes him a bit of a odd pick for Narnia, too. Going off Matthew Aldrich's past work and a few other things, I think there's a good chance that Netflix's plans for Narnia were more heavily weighted towards films than series when they bought the rights (mainly for cost management) but their roadmap has shifted some because of the increasing need to compete with high quality television series on other streaming services.

Given the nature of the stories I think they'd be ideal for doing as essentially one miniseries per book. Though for some of them, like PC, that might mean a great deal of expansion. 

However, Netflix has also been very open recently about its desire to compete in the cinematic marketplace, with bigger and more noteworthy films, so Narnia could also be right up that alley.

Also, as someone who works in the film/tv industry, let me just say that there's currently no need to worry as the time gap after the announcement has not been that long.

It takes a long time to put something of this magnitude together and as its going to be one big franchise, they want to make sure they like what they have before they go full steam ahead. 

Don't forget that the 2005 LLWW was in development since the 1990s and went through many different iterations. Originally being produced by Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy. 

Of course, the version where the children were from LA and Turkish Delight was replaced with cheeseburgers is perhaps the most infamous version but there were also many different faithful attempts that were tried as well. 

One would have been a very-faithful version and was to have involved special effects by the Jim Henson Creature shop and direction by acclaimed British director John Boorman.

Another would have been potentially animated, less faithful, though still fairly close to the books, and directed by Rob Minkoff (who did Stuart Little and The Lion King)

Posted by: @icarus

Matthew Aldrich was hired by Netflix to work on Narnia almost two and a half years ago... If he hadn't managed to crank out a pilot script at the bare minimum in that time I'd be having some serious words with him as his employer! 🙂

My sister was a film producer for a while and I can tell you that 2 1/2 years is nothing in the development of a film or television series.   One of the ones she worked on had been in development for 10 years.   It depends a lot on various factors.  Not the least of which is whether or not the people in charge are happy with how various elements are coming together.   Also how committed they remain when it isn't.  Like has been said before projects get passed around a lot.