Interesting topic. Quite a lot to unpack. Since there are many different forms of non-linear storytelling, some of which i'd be keen on and some of which i'd not be so keen on, I'll try and break down my response into sections:

Amalgamations between stories - In terms of the suggestion of employing a narrative structure which intertwines two different stories into one, that would be a fairly big no from me. I don't really feel that any of the Narnia stories have strong enough thematic or character connections between the stories to justify mixing them up in such a way.

Its not that I am not entirely averse to the format - i was immensely impressed by the way that Greta Gerwig's recent adaptation of Little Women intercut the first part of the book with the second part of the book in order to compare and contrast the fading fortunes of the characters and the transition from childhood to adulthood, as well as enable a skilful re-contextualising of the ending.

Similarly, i also liked the way that the Cloud Atlas movie intercuts the previously nested stories from the book into a single narrative by drawing out the visual and thematic similarities within each story, however I just don't feel that any of the Narnia stories really have this sort of visual, thematic or character parallels to really make the gimmick pay off.

The only consideration that could be given towards this concept is that quite often in any given TV series episode you will have an "A Plot" and a "B Plot" which intercut throughout the episode (think of any given sitcom episode etc.). Usually its done just to break up the main narrative a bit and keep viewers interested. So for example, in the recent Dark Materials adaptation on HBO, elements from the second book were used in the first season to serve as the "B Plot" to the main action. However whilst it worked well for that, again i would say that the problem here is that the Narnia stories are all functionally independent stories, not simply parts of one overall meta-narrative between books. Also, it would mean relegating parts of one story to a "B Plot" which i don't really feel is ideal.

Non-Sequential Episodes in Prince Caspian - Absolutely. Definitely needs to happen. The television format lends itself perfectly to handling the long flashback problem in the book. Whether they go with alternate Pevensie/Caspian episodes for the first few, or do half-and-half intercut episodes I don't mind, but i think it would make sense to avoid having to do the narrative re-structuring that Walden had to do in order to get Prince Caspian into a tight 3-act movie structure.

Flashbacks within stories to events outside the books - Big fan of this idea as well. I am not sure if many people have watched either series of The Umbrella Academy on Netflix, but i'm pretty sure that every episode features a cold open (the bit before the title credits) which depicts a moment from one of the character's backstory, but without any relevant context to explain it. Then, the rest of the episode tends to play out in real time, and usually there is the pay off for the flashback later into the episode - i.e. the moment from their past informs some sort of character growth moment later in the episode.

I could see this sort of thing working well within say LWW, where each episode could open with a moment from a specific child's past (whichever is the predominant focus of that episode) such as being at school, or at home with their parents, which could then have an emotionally resonant pay-off later in the Narnia portion of the story - for example, perhaps Edmund had issues in his personal life that informed why he made certain decisions in his Narnia adventure.

Non-Linear Elements within stories - I'm also not entirely averse to the idea of doing episodes which start with the ending, and then cut back to the beginning to reveal how we got to that point, though it can be a bit cliched if done wrong - i've never seen the movie Sunset Boulevard, but i must have seen a dozen TV shows which parody it's flashback structure, it's become something of a trope in its own right.

I could also see maybe that you could overlap certain parts of stories to create more tension, though i think that just comes down to skilful editing of a scene, rather than being out-and-out non-linear storytelling.

Posted by: @icarus

In terms of the suggestion of employing a narrative structure which intertwines two different stories into one, that would be a fairly big no from me. I don't really feel that any of the Narnia stories have strong enough thematic or character connections between the stories to justify mixing them up in such a way.

 

I'd argue that it could kind of work for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair. (I don't think it'd work great but I don't think it'd be terrible either.) Because Eustace is so different in those two stories, viewers would be wondering what made him change. And since he implies early on in SC that he has a close relationship with Caspian while he hates Caspian (and pretty much everyone else) in the early parts of VDT. So viewers would be wondering, "what's up with that?" And the climax of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has Caspian wishing he could go to Aslan's country (and briefly to our world) and being denied that wish while the climax of The Silver Chair allows him to do so. I could see it being satisfying to have those two things in the same episode. 

In general though, I agree with you. But the difference is I don't think the books lend themselves to a modern television drama at all. So this idea doesn't strike me as worse than any of yours.   

I think MN and LWW could make a really good and interesting mashup. You have the juxtaposition of Aslan creation and Aslan death, which seems like it might be the end of Narnia. Jadis's reawakening/immortality in MN and White Witch ALMOST winning in LWW followed by her death. And Digory Kirke seeing how he began things in MN and then sort of living through the eyes of the Pevensies as they finish what he started. So yes, I think that would be very doable and very interesting. 

Now, having said that, I don't actually want them to do this. I would like MN to get its own movie because it's never been adapted before. But this is something I could be interested in 17 years from now when they do yet another set of Narnia films.  

I'm personally in the camp of preferring linear storytelling and using the process of adaptation to make more sense of some of the non-linear type used in the books - mainly Prince Caspian. I'm also not a huge fan of mashing-up books to create one season.

When it comes to The Chronicles of Narnia especially, I'd really like for them to give a good amount of time to each book, and while not expand too much, at least give enough time for us to spend time on each scene and each character. One thing I worry about when thinking about the possibility of Netflix getting through the stories quite quickly, like A Series of Unfortunate Events, is that we as an audience would not get time to spend time with these characters and become attached to them - which for me is extremely important when it comes to Narnia because we have characters coming in and out of each story, so for that to hold enough weight, we need to spend enough time with them.

So I'd prefer a longer series of episodes that covers one book per season. I understand the hesitance of this for the sake of adding too much to the stories, but I think there's a way to create a broader story with what C.S. Lewis wrote, without just creating new threads or characters.

While a lot of people dislike the comparison but looking at Game of Thrones, while there was a lot more to work with, the reason the show worked was the characters, and how much time we spent developing them. I'm not expecting ten episodes a series for each book, but maybe something like six or seven episodes to stretch each book across could be really interesting and would be a great way to give us time to develop the characters we love, so we care 100 times more when we meet them again.

I don't know if this answers the question, or even makes sense, but these are my thoughts.

🙂 

Normally non-linear storytelling is one of my pet peeves. However, I recently had this idea of how non-linear storytelling could work in the context of a Narnia adaptation. 

The way I envision it, the first episode of the LWW would eventually have that scene of the four kids exploring the house (not playing hide and seek, but exploring the house). Eventually the four of them enter the spare room with the wardrobe. Nothing to see here. They all turn around and walk out except for Lucy, who is completely captivated by the wardrobe. We all know where this is going (Lucy's first adventure in Narnia, at night.) It's not super important, so I'll skip it for now. Basically the first episode would end with Lucy tumbling out of the wardrobe, starting to shout that she's back and running out of the room.

Then, second episode would open with the four kids entering the spare room with the wardrobe (Wait a second, we've been here before...just bear with me!). Nothing to see here. They all turn around and walk out. All except for Lucy. Except this time, the camera follows Peter, Susan + Edmund as they walk out of the room. In the background, Lucy would briefly be seen beginning to inspect the wardrobe before going out of frame. The camera would continue to follow P, S and E down the hallway, perhaps as they make small talk of some kind. They wouldn't get very far before their chatter would be interrupted by a thump, followed by muffled shouting. They would find themselves exchanging bewildered glances as Lucy comes running out of the spare room exclaiming that "she's back". Cue drama.

The reason this idea came to me was because I was interested in the time-bending magic behind travelling to Narnia unfolding in real time + from the perspectives of those who weren't there. I also think that this type of "cinematic compartmentalization" would work for a few other scenes in the series. The snowball fight scene in the Silver Chair comes to mind here (with Jill and Eustace/Puddleglum/Rillian having very different but equally urgent perspectives).

Thoughts?