Re Aslan.. I think I'm passing into the 'acceptance' stage. Although every so often I'll experience the whole grief cycle again! 

As to what it means for the whole project, I know producers were keen initially to break the whole arc of Narnia, but I'm less optimistic now than I was that we'll see every/most Narnia stories adapted. I feel like this project will pique quickly in public consciousness and then fade once again.

I'm still interested in what the overall plan is, I need details! As I've said before, anyone trying to adapt Narnia has my attention - even if I wouldn't choose their approach, I wish them well.

What does everyone else think?

I'm scared. I loved the Walden Media films, despite their flaws. Dawn Treader stank as both an adaptation and a film, but besides that, they were amazing. Meanwhile, this seems to be directly spitting in the face of Lewis and Christianity. After all, Aslan is a direct parallel to Jesus Christ--who is referred to as the Son of God.

I've dropped back from formerly "cautiously optimistic" overall to "neutral / wait and see", thanks to the recent casting rumour about Aslan. I won't say I'm outright pessimistic, simply because we still don't know exactly what's going to happen and I don't think it's ever fair to make one's mind up before one has enough information to do so.

What floored me about the Meryl Streep rumour is that absolutely everything Greta Gerwig had said publicly about her own regard for Narnia and for C.S. Lewis seemed to show a lot of respect for the original story and the original author. There was absolutely nothing from her or other people involved that suggested "Oh, well, of course we're going to make some changes to keep this story fresh and relevant and relatable to today's audiences", or anything else of the sort.

And then... this bombshell drops, which is just so at odds with what we've heard so far that at first I thought it could only be an April Fool's joke, designed to get Narnia traditionalists all riled up. But as the days go on and we still have no clarification either way, it's just becoming baffling.

In fact, from what we already know, two previous attempts at continuing or restarting a Narnia film franchise have been derailed in the recent past, at least partly because there were "modernising" changes proposed. The Silver Chair reportedly got ditched because they were planning to make Jill Pole a girl-power action heroine, and the C.S. Lewis Estate objected; Matthew Aldrich, who was originally announced as the "creative architect" of Netflix's Narnia project in 2019, has let on that one of the main reasons he lost that gig was because those in charge didn't agree with his proposal to "try to sort of update them [the books] in some fun ways."

So, basically, if girl power and fun updating didn't get the go-ahead, and yet possibly a female Aslan has... what are we supposed to think?? Or if that rumour is untrue, why doesn't someone at Netflix just step up and say so?

And that's where I am at the moment. Just too completely baffled to know whether to be hopeful or horrified!!  

I voted for "pessimistic", but tbh i think it's somewhere between that and neutral.

I was never enthusiastic about the Netflix adaptation, not because i thought it was doomed to failure or anything, but because really good adaptations are extremely rare. The BBC adaptations did manage to convey a subtle magical feeling (probably due more to the lens of childhood than anything), but i don't think they'd do that for me if i watched as an adult. I really enjoyed Walden's LWW the first couple times i watched it, but i don't care very much for it now, and even less for PC; never saw VotDT and don't intend to. Netflix didn't seem likely to do notably better than either, and potentially could be much worse. That latter possibility seems even higher now, but still not 100% confirmed.

I voted pessimistic, but maybe I should have gone with neutral. I want it to be a good adaption, I've been trying to be optimistic, but the whole Meryl Streep thing has made me lose most of my hope for it. Until things are confirmed though, I'm not going to write it off completely.

I'm neutral, which is a step down from my previous optimism. I was hoping Greta Gerwig's positive comments about her respect for Narnia and C.S.Lewis meant we were getting a good adaptation, but it sounds like we might be getting something closer to Howl's Moving Castle. The book and the movie basically follow the same outline, but everything else is very different. That being said, I do love both and I still hope Greta Gerwig's Narnia results in a movie I will enjoy watching even if I don't like her adaptation decisions.

I voted "feeling pessimistic".

Untill last week,.everything was going great - all the little details we had seen felt really promising and everything that Greta herself had said in interviews was really reassuring.

This news however, along with Netflix's lackluster "no comment" response to the whole situation, has just really taken the wind out of my sails and I'm feeling rather deflated right now.

Still,. If they can give us something to get excited about again, I'm sure I'll be back on board... It's just going to be a long road to get back to where we were.

I voted neutral, but now I am feeling more pessimistic about the film. Unless we hear something from Greta Gerwig herself about Aslan being a male Lion as he was in the book there isn’t much reason for optimism. I was hoping that the negative reaction from fans would make her change her mind and choose a male actor. But we haven’t heard anything from her yet since the rumor hit the news. It would be nice if she would respond positively to the petition.

My feelings have gone from cautious optimism (growing more optimistic with each Greta Gerwig interview) straight to pessimism. Even if the negative buzz online manages to make the creative powers that be reconsider gender-swapping Aslan, it would barely make me feel better. If that was the plan, it shows their hearts are not in the right place.

It's true that we don't know for sure how Meryl Streep's voice would be utilized, but all of the alternate scenarios proposed - her voice being blended with other voices, her voicing a male lion, her voice being altered with AI - all seem like denial to me. If Meryl Streep is cast as Aslan, the simplest explanation is she is playing a lioness.

My only glimmer of hope is that the reports were mistaken and someone got their wires crossed somewhere. It still hasn't been officially confirmed. It's odd that no one at Netflix has addressed the issue, but maybe not that odd? Narnia is a smaller fandom compared with something like Star Wars, so I wonder how big of a splash this has really made outside of our internet bubble.  

Posted by: @reepicheep775

 Narnia is a smaller fandom compared with something like Star Wars, so I wonder how big of a splash this has really made outside of our internet bubble.    

Most of the major UK newspapers from both sides of the political aisle reported on it via their websites (not sure about their print copies). Several US and Aus publications have also run with it, though these have tended to be mostly the right-wing-leaning publications as far as i can tell.

Either way, its definitely been news which has "broken through" to some extent.

I guess I'm feeling pessimistic. I've originally thought it was an April fool's joke, and could still be, as nothing has been confirmed.

But as I've said before in another thread, I certainly wouldn't want a female Aslan. I mean, there are some other male characters I wouldn't mind being changed to a female (we could probably have a whole discussion about that in another thread), but that would of course depend on the character. Just not Aslan. I don't know if the Estate would even allow it.

I'm honestly caught between feeling pessimistic and very concerned.

I want to give Greta Gerwig the benefit of the doubt. And despite my concerns with her track record, I was willing to give her a chance.

And I still am.

But at the same time, with the world and Hollywood as it is, I don't know if I can expect anything more from Netflix etc.

I genuinely think Greta is a talented artist.

And I respect her artistry.

But at the same time, I don't know if she's a good fit for Narnia after all. If she is going to push her own worldview on Narnia, politics aside, and not honor CS Lewis's world view in his own work, then the project is already lost.

Again, I want to say this in the most respectful way, because I'm still hoping that Greta and her team will listen to fans. And will also learn from other film projects in Hollywood recently.

But we will see.

To be honest, as a nearly 30 year-old man who is a gym rat and has a functional job and lots of friends, I never thought I'd see the day when Narnia news literally would make me weep.

But, I want to keep it in perspective, and I realize that Narnia is just a story. But at the same time, like a lot of you, it literally shaped me as a human being from a child on. And that's got to mean something.

I've never wanted a carbon copy of the books on screen, because I know that's not realistic. I just wanted something that would honor the soul of Narnia. And not needlessly change details just for the sake of "artistic expression". But a faithful and respectful ode to the original author.  

Posted by: @icarus

Posted by: @reepicheep775

 

 Narnia is a smaller fandom compared with something like Star Wars, so I wonder how big of a splash this has really made outside of our internet bubble.    

Most of the major UK newspapers from both sides of the political aisle reported on it via their websites (not sure about their print copies). Several US and Aus publications have also run with it, though these have tended to be mostly the right-wing-leaning publications as far as i can tell.

Either way, its definitely been news which has "broken through" to some extent.

It is in this morning's Australian Daily Telegraph (dailytelegraph.com.au) on page 19. Unlike the Daily Express & English variety of the Daily Telegraph, it seems rather neutral reporting in the Sydney Confidential pages. I left a copy of the article in the appropriate Meryl Streep as Aslan thread. Yes, Brisbane's Courier Mail has also published that news, but not Sydney Morning Herald, or Melbourne papers, as far as I know.

I haven't posted at all since the "news" was made somewhat official. Previously, I posted elsewhere that if they changed Aslan from a male lion to a female lion, I wouldn't see the movie. Period. 

And even if the powers that be hear the concern from the fans and change their minds (a la Arwen at Helm's Deep), the problem is, I now believe the world view the filmmakers are using to make this book into a film is diametrically opposed to what Lewis believed and was trying to convey through Narnia. It is absolutely not something I will support. 

Is it possible something comes up and I change my mind about all this? Yes. Though I can't think right now what it could be.....