Here's an idea while not very realistic would totally re-brand the film series while containing it's continuity:

Have each film like
Narnia: Wardrobe
Based on The Lion, Witch & Wardrobe by CS Lewis- in smaller print, always having this bit with smaller emphasis -
Narnia : Caspian
Based on Prince Caspian by CS Lewis
Narnia : Voyage
Based on Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis
Narnia: Nephew
Based on The Magician's Nephew by CS Lewis
Narnia: Chair
Based on The Silver Chair by CS Lewis
Narnia: Boy
Based on The Horse & His Boy by CS Lewis
Narnia: Battle
Based on The Last Battle by CS Lewis

So each film has a nickname, ye the whole title is repeated also. This also sets up the films as being different things from the books, while not needing to re-boot the book marketing also.

Then if a new movie is made, re-release the films on home viewing with different fonts for the new title screens matching the above, and the films are all Directors Cuts of the previous three films, preferably done in an economical box set. Narnia: Wardrobe already has a fantastic directors cut, a Director's cut for Narnia: Caspian could just involve editing the battle after Peter/Mariz duel, removing the whole battle narrative and just showing quick cuts of over whelming odds the Narnians' are facing i.e. show the catpaults, quick cuts of the charge of the Telmarines and the Narnian birds being downed, before getting back to film narrative of Lucy finding Aslan and the awakening of the trees. Im sure with good editing, this could be made quite seamless and remedy Caspian's one fault as a film - this DC wouldn't involve much expense either as they already have all the footage they need. Narnia: Voyage's DC could be more problamatic, as they won't be wanting to spend money on any new additional scenes & it is unknown what direction to that film can improve it's story as is also instead of just being more, but there might be a few small wee things that could enhance the film none the less. Anyhow, most Narnia films fans would buy the box set i think, i know i would.

IF a new film is made that is better than Voyage, it would at a minimum get back the audience that turned out for that film. But this, along with a re-branding, could engage a whole new casual audience that is not currently in the loop for the Narnia series but whith a new nick-names of the brand helping serve as a re-boot of sorts for the entire series, putting the previous three films in a new light & experience also without turning off the more initiated Narnia book & film audience.

I have enjoyed reading about and ruminating on the possible re-boot ideas for the Narnia franchise. I keep returning to two issues that I can't seem to resolve--both involve the children, especially the Pevensies--that would result in a Narnia movie series with which both book purists and average movie goers would be happy.

The first issue relates to the ages of the book children versus the aging of the actors and actresses protraying those children. Will M. and Anna P. were believable as 13 year olds in LWW. We, the audience, could accept and believe that they were still innocent and naive children. However, by the time movie PC rolled around, it was obvious that, physically speaking, Will and Anna could no longer play such youthful innocents. Why should this create a dilema? Because in book PC, Aslan tells Peter and Susan that they are too old for Narnia; that they have learned all they can from Narnia. Why? Because Peter and Susan have left childhood behind. They have matured and the innocence to which Narnia speaks can no longer speak to them. This created a real problem for movie PC. Will and Anna were obviously 'too old' for Narnia so that meant that Andrew Adamson had to alter their characters, particularly Peter's, to compliment their physical maturity. This change turned off many purists and many general movie goers. Movie Peter was no long book Peter. And yet, what was AA to do? Will (and Anna) was simply too old to play a role that required that innocent quality.

Issue two relates to the endearing characters of the children, especially the Pevensies. While many on NW have expressed the opinion that the movies need to focus more on Aslan and Narnia--and I don't disagree--I believe it is only human nature that the audience falls in love with the children. As Tilda Swinton commented, Andrew Adamson found actors and actresses who were 'as fresh as daisies' to portray the children and we have loved them for it. When it is revealed that Peter and Susan are basically gone after PC and Edmund and Lucy follow after VDT, how can we not be disappointed and miss them? So, what started out as one of the movies' greatest strengths has turned into one of its greatest liabilities, particularly with the average movie goer, that the characters we have fallen in love with no longer appear in future stories.

So, what are the answers to these problems?
(1) Produce the movies in chronological order so that the audience doesn't get too attached to specific children? Perhaps, but then this doesn't solve the actors' aging issues.
(2) Re-make LWW and PC back-to-back with new actors and actresses so that aging is not a problem? Well, this doesn't solve the 'falling in love with the children' issue and many would not accept new actors/actresses portraying the Pevensies.
(3) Pick up with The Silver Chair and complete the movies in publication order? Once again, there is the age/innocence problem with Will Poulter/Eustace. Or do you simple re-cast Eustace with a younger actor? Yow, I can hear the howls of protest already!

My goodness, what a conundrum. No wonder we're still waiting for news about the future of the series! While book purists understand and perhaps accept the absence of the Pevensies in future movies, for much of the average movie going public, Narnia and the Pevensies are synonomous. How does one choose the lesser of the evils?

agree that it is quite early for a reboot, and see no reason to change anything about LWW, except make it a bit more of a serious movie. Watching it for the first time in maybe a year the other day, I noticed how there were quite a few out of place jokes (that I personally didnt find very humorous). PC was a bit dark, but It was a good movie all the same, though I would make it just a little truer to the book, and I like the idea of all the cast being younger, around the ages that Lewis suggested, maybe? These are his movies.

I think that VDT definitely needs a remake. I'm ashamed that it has the Narnia title, its more they read the book and thought they liked all the names and the beginning and end of the story, then threw in all the other stuff because they had a cool dream about it. I'd much rather it be along the story-line of the book, and I think that would be totally possible if they changed the cast, the producers, the Story-writer, and the Director.

So, what are the answers to these problems?
(1) Produce the movies in chronological order so that the audience doesn't get too attached to specific children? Perhaps, but then this doesn't solve the actors' aging issues.
(2) Re-make LWW and PC back-to-back with new actors and actresses so that aging is not a problem? Well, this doesn't solve the 'falling in love with the children' issue and many would not accept new actors/actresses portraying the Pevensies.
(3) Pick up with The Silver Chair and complete the movies in publication order? Once again, there is the age/innocence problem with Will Poulter/Eustace. Or do you simple re-cast Eustace with a younger actor? Yow, I can hear the howls of protest already!

I think you are right. Though I do disagree with Aslan's Jewel that even VDT definitely needs rebooting. This year's movie offerings don't seem to have done any better than last year. Besides, it would need careful thought about how there could be a much better version of VDT the book. But, taking into account Aslan's Jewel's post directly after yours, and as the bulk of viewers here seem to agree with that post, I think the best solution to reboot the series would go something like this:

Do the series in chronological order, starting with Magician's Nephew, which doesn't really need any of the present actors except maybe Aslan and Jadis. Then, whilst Horse and his Boy is being filmed, I think Walden's LWW could be re-remastered for 3D viewing, and re-released.

Once HHB is done, hopefully starring adult Anna Popplewell and Skandar Keynes as Queen Susan and King Edmund, and remembering these are not the main characters of that particular story, producers would then have a better idea of whether or not it would be a good idea to remaster PC or do a fresh version of it as well as the rest of the series, with an entirely new cast. However, I've always had a feeling that the present PC might look completely different if it follows HHB, and would look a far more appropriate sequel, and as is mentioned, new actors/actresses for the Pevensies might not work.

Assuming they do find it useful to remaster PC, maybe editing out that infamous kiss, so that it looks just like a hearty embrace, and including instead that deleted pre-duel scene of Prince Caspian and Will Moseley's Peter, where they do show some friendship for each other, they can then decide whether VDT also really needs refilming as part of the concluding Eustace trilogy, at least two of which would have to be done with different actors, anyway. Much as I liked Will Poulter's Eustace, he is, after all, only one actor to replace, and though I think producers could get around Ben Barnes' Caspian easily enough, especially in Silver Chair, I doubt that Lucy and Edmund could be replaced in VDT quite so easily.

I'd agree it would be too soon to do a remake of LWW, and that there are already several versions available, including musicals and theatre productions. I think that any producer would find it hard to do a better job of PC than Andrew Adamson has done, considering the structure of the novel, and when it made the top ten movie earners for 2008, it was hardly the movie disaster that it is sometimes considered.

The way things have gone, I can't see the next Narnia film being anything but a reboot.

Why would any production company in their right mind seriously go about securing the rights to the Chronicles of Narnia and then pass up the opportunity to make an adaptation of the immensely popular and timeless classic that is The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe? Would they really just skip the chance to make a hefty financial return merely in deference to a movie by an entirely different company which will be over 10 years old by the time they ever get round to releasing their own?

Unless the CS Lewis estate had some sort of power to enforce a continuity with Walden's movies when re-selling the production rights (which i can't imagine they could do, or would even want to do) you would have to say that any new company would be mad not to start with either Magician's Nephew or LWW in a brand new continuity.

Contradictory to what I may have said earlier, I don't think rebooting the Narnia series starting with MN is exactly a good idea, especially if a complete reboot were to come within a few years time.

This mostly comes from the fact that Narnia is often charged for copying Lord of the Rings, but I don't want to start a debate about this.

Considering the upcoming two part release of The Hobbit, the prequel to LotR, I don't think it is too bright an idea to film another movie in the Narnia series that is a prequel and involves rings in the plot as well...

Already fallen popularity of Narnia + alleged copying of LotR = Not such a pretty outcome.

I guess a reboot starting with LWW wouldn't be too bad an idea. The film was good, but there was so much more that could have been done. All we need is a production company and producers who truly love the books for what they are, and a dedicated director who will put effort in to make something memorable and special. This will be hard, but this is not impossible.

I think that it would be cool to reboot it by making the climax of the film, when Aslan rises from the dead (in the 2005 film it was more focused on the battle). Don't get me wrong, when I read the book, the battle was almost exactly the same as it was in the movie. I imagined a huge battle, and they did that. But, I also think that they shouldn't tone it down either. The book is a kids book, but when you put it on screen it's a bit different. Like when C.S. Lewis wrote about the creatures of the White Witch, he said some were to scary to describe. But, when you're watching a film, you're seeing everything so that you actually see these deformed, horrific creatures; or in the book, it says that Peter's sword was covered in blood and hair after killing the wolf. In the movie, you don't actually see blood on any of the swords (which I found really distracting, especially in the second film). I'm not saying to make it violent for violence's sake, but if they want to capture the book as C.S. Lewis intended, they don't need to tone things down. Because it may be a children's book, but in a movie, it can look very different.

... I'm going to make this as simple as possible.

The challenge isn't to try to be different. The challenge is to be true to the book.

... Enough said.

I think what's needed is a crew of filmmakers who genuinely believe in the story and want to translate it to a different medium, rather than a crew of people determined to make their own original work within a framework someone else made. I got the impression from the previous filmmakers that their goal was not to bring the books to life, but rather to use the books as the stepping stone for their own story. Rather than bringing the spirit of the books to screen, it was more a matter of what they could get away with leaving out. I think it's very necessary for the crew to be made up of avid Narnia fans.

Also, quality. There seems to be a lack of it in movies in general nowadays. But films here and there have shown that good filmmaking hasn't been completely forgotten. We need people with talent.

We need people who know how to adapt books to film - who can discern what changes need to be made, and what needs to be left in. When they leave something in, it has to be well executed, and not just there for its own sake, or for the sake of pleasing the purists. It has to be there to benefit the story. And when they do make changes, the changes still have to be in the spirit of the original material, and not to somehow make it more "modern", "fresh", or "different".

~Riella

Since it's getting rebooted, here is what I think:

I think it should be done in chronological order, or in the order they were published. Not a unique order, one of those. I personally don't care about things like the director of a film (I don't pay much attention to that stuff), so it can have any director as long as the movie is good. There should be no more reboots after this one, it's been taking long enough already. It will already have taken too long for all seven movies to be out at the rate it's going at already, so no more reboots after this one. If it gets rebooted again after this reboot, it's not going to be worth the wait, and they might as well just stop making Narnia movies all together, in my opinion.

I think it's going to get rebooted too. I just don't see how else it could be done. Now that I've said that, here are my thoughts about what they could do...

I don't care too much which they do first. MN would be new but runs the risk of being called a LOTR knock off, unless they use something other than rings to get to and from The Wood Between The Worlds. LWW would have to compete with Walden's, but would be more popular.

I honestly don't understand why everyone's so bothered by the lack of blood on the swords. I'm an adult and I would be disturbed if blood did appear. I don't think it needs to be any darker.

DO NOT INCLUDE SUSPIAN! That was a bad idea the first time, let's not do that again. You can throw Digolly, Jillstace, or Shastaravis at me, but not Suspian.

Now, I had one idea about how to make it look fresh. Motion Capture Animation. That's the kind where people where special suits that record how they move so the animated characters move in the same way. It was used for Gollum, and Mars Needs Moms used it too, and I think that could make it more realistic than Pixar or other computer animation, without having to be live-action. This would also solve the aging issue. The biggest problem I have with it is not so much I don't think it would be great (or at least acceptable) but that we know that some independent studio is going to make it, and I'm not sure how expensive the technology is.

In my opinion, they should start the series off with Magicians Nephew and chug on through the series. This way the reboot would seem different from Walden movies, giving the series credibility again.

I also think that this would establish the fact that Narnia isn't all about the Pevensies to the casual fans and make it known that that Aslan is the main character of the series.

I agree, Walden tried to please twenty different demographics at one time and just made everyone mad. If they had made it PG-13 and followed the books then I feel it would have been more popular. There was blood on the sword in the book, no reason why it wouldn't be in the movie.

Just follow the book Mr. Future Director, is it that hard?

I really wouldn't like a reboot, but I'd have to agree that at the moment, it looks like the only option
I wouldn't mind a reboot starting with MN, but it would be very dreadful if they used something other than rings for them to travel around different worlds, of course they could use arm braceltes, that's almost like rings, but still, since I generally like for them to stick to the book, I would really they didn't change anything

If they did reboot with LWW, I wonder how they would make it, cause it would have to be different from Waldens at yet at the same time, sort of not be to different.....if that even makes any sense
(and I didn't really miss the blood on the sword, I'm really not a fan of blood being shown in movies, I was actually quite glad there was no blood in Walden's LWW, but then, of course, it's all about personal preference )
I didn't mind Suspian so much, *hides from the rotten tomatoes about to be thrown at her* although if they did reboot it, it could go with the kiss

I have to agree with you last statement narnianerd stick to the books and we shall be happy fans (although some changes do make sense I think it's really important for the directors and moviemakers to really understand the very thin line between changes that enhance the story and changes that ruin the story, you really have to have wisdom when it comes to knowing the difference. I hope that if they do reboot the series they will understand that )

I honestly don't understand why everyone's so bothered by the lack of blood on the swords. I'm an adult and I would be disturbed if blood did appear. I don't think it needs to be any darker.

I wasn't disturbed my the lack of blood. However, having a PG rating can make them "cheap out" on other things. Such as the darkness of the atmosphere, when it comes to lighting and set design. They don't want to scare the little kiddies away, but in the process, end up scaring away the teens and adults if they make it look too childish. VDT for example reminded me more of a movie geared for much younger children than necessary.

~Riella

Since it's going to be a reboot, it'd be best to start with MN instead of LWW. Also, in terms of being different, obviously sticking closer to the book would be a good idea. For more specific terms, I think it'd be a good idea to make the film more personal--more time on the relationships between each character, and less on the battles and newness of Narnia (in relation to the kids). I think it's interesting that Lewis tends to start his books by speaking about the kids, not the situation--in fact, with the exception of MN and LB, they all do (and even MN uses the second person You).