@col-klink  I would agree that any changes to the ethnicity of the characters is a minor issue in comparison to making Aslan female. I wouldn't refuse to watch on that issue alone but it would still annoy me. The fact that they are being this sensitive about ethnicity this early on also raises questions about how they will handle the Calormenes later in the franchise, if they get that far.

Posted by: @son-of-eve

The 2nd boy could be anyone really at this point, even young uncle Andrew.

I like this thought @son-of-eve. And really, there are so many voiced characters that a third child could play as well. This third child casting announcement is the least of my concerns. 

Posted by: @jewel

Who gave over the rights to such an adaptation? 

The C.S. Lewis Estate. 
It all depends on the wording of the contract, but generally, once someone signs over a project like this, it's out of the hands of the original owners and the filmmakers can do whatever they want. Even with the Walden films, I'm not sure that D.G. had much of an official say in the project, it was more out of respect for him that the filmmakers honored many of his requests and wishes. I could be wrong on that last part though. 

MOD NOTE: There is now a thread in Cast and Character discussion to discuss specifically Digory's ethnic background, so discussion of that can happen over there.

Carry on.

Now that I’ve had some time to process the initial shock and disappointment from the reports, I find myself landing in a more neutral place overall.

I can't deny there are still things I'm excited and curious about. But for the first time, I’m really starting to question how much the filmmakers truly care about honouring Lewis which is something I hadn’t doubted before, based on everything we’d heard up to this point.

I'm hopeful there will be some news/interviews/announcements that can get me back to feeling optimistic.

I'm personally still rather excited. I have questions in regards to the reports, but I'm still seeing them as just that, reports, rumours and "if, buts, and maybes". Nothing we've discussed is set in stone and everything is rather vague.

As far as we know; none of the names mentioned are going to be in the film, the casting of Aslan is an open one, not set in either gendered direction, and the casting calls we've been reading may make more sense when official moves are made. I would advise to not put all the eggs in one basket when it comes to these reports and keep an open-mind. As I've said before, I trust Greta Gerwig and while some changes may be made, I expect her to create something that really adapts but faithfully represents The Magician's Nephew. 

If I was to pinpoint a concern, it's mostly to do with Charlie XCX's casting as Jadis. If at all true, I just have questions in regards to why you would cast someone whose so untested as an actress to play the monolith that is Jadis/The White Witch. There's a reason Tilda Swinton worked so well, but again I'm keeping an open-mind and trust in Greta.

I'm now firmly in the camp of they are going to have to work extremely hard to get me to watch. Things point to changes in the story and for a story that's never been adapted before, I'm extremely disappointed in addition to the casting issues. 

I'm willing to change my mind, but they are going to have to put some major work into it. 

I think both of these news stories amplify the most negative aspects of each.

• If it were "just" the Meryl Streep casting, you could say "well maybe it will still be a male Lion, just with a Female voice"
• and if it were "just" the third child role, you could say "well maybe Polly will just have a brother who merely tags along with them"
• or if it were "just" the idea of Digory having an Indian heritage you could say "well maybe they just want to explore the idea of race relations in Victorian era London for a bit of added background texture"

But i think that when taken together, you seriously have to reconsider how much we actually know about the project, and whether any of our default assumptions about fidelity to the source material even hold true any more. We are all desperately trying to come up with theories as to how these new facts map back onto the story of 'The Magician's Nephew' that we know, but perhaps the simple answer is that they don't.... or at least not in the way we are expecting.

Yes, there is still more than enough evidence to suggest that Magician's Nephew will be the baseline source material, but as anyone who's seen more than a handful of movie adaptations knows, they can range anywhere from near 100% authenticity to the literal text, to basically just being the book in name only.

Right now, these two stories have really up-ended everything we thought we knew about the project, and therefore its a very uncertain situation for all.

It's always worth considering that not all changes necessarily signal a loss of faithfulness. Sometimes, they open up new thematic layers or offer fresh perspectives while still honoring the source material. Overall, I just feel there's still room for cautious optimism...

Posted by: @hermit

I don't see why I shouldn't hold any Narnia adaption up to the same standards.

You do you. I'm just sharing my opinion, not telling you what to do or think.

Why can't they all be white, as that's certainly the way Lewis envisaged the characters. 

Lewis isn't directing. This movie never will be nor never could be a 100% faithful adaptation. IMO, no good adaptation could. The world has changed, people have different opinions on different issues, and that will always affect any piece of media (book, movie, etc). People will be watching TMN in 2026, not 1955. 

This is just not going to be good. The "moral" point of view that the people at Netflix have is anti-Christian, in my opinion, and so i just don't think they are going to get it. Nothing they have said has made me think that they are going to even try to understand the morality of the books and of Aslan. There are a lot of really complicated truths in the books and when their morality is based on different "truths" it just isn't going to fit. 

Nothing about Greta being attached has ever been a positive for me. I didn't make it through Little Women because it was so boring and the Barbie movie was just bizarre in its point of view to point of being nonsensical. She made money on a movie; that doesn't mean it is a good movie. 

Though, the idea that they might have a female Aslan is something that is actually so bad that it surprised me they would consider it, but once the rumor came out, i thought, of course, they will do that. The changing the main characters ethnicity was always going to happen. I agree that hearing all of these changes all at once does make it more upsetting.

@son-of-eve you and I have very different views about adapting a children's classic.  Let's agree to disagree, but please try not to think poorly of other views. 

I voted Neutral/Wait and See. 

In general, Greta Gerwig's films (for me) tend to be eye-roll inducing at times, never a favorite for me, but ultimately a fun time at the movies. I can't say I've ever regretted watching one of her films. I'm assuming her Narnia adaptation will be the same, though she could surprise me (positively or negatively).

She likes to be subversive in her themes. So it wouldn't really surprise me if she did make Aslan (Aslanna?) a lioness. I could easily see her in the future saying something like "People keep asking me why I made Aslan female. But the question I'd ask in return is, why NOT have a female Aslan? What is it about seeing a lioness in such a powerful role that bothers people? The fact that people have trouble imagining it is the reason it must be done!" Or something like that. (I'm not saying I agree with that sentiment, by the way. I'm just saying, that seems to be how she might see it.)

I used to be someone that was very bothered by adaptation inaccuracies. I wanted the vision I saw in my head when I read the books to be put on screen. Even things like a movie-character having a different hair color than the book-character would really bother me. That way of looking at adaptations ultimately wasn't very healthy for me, as all it did was add stress to my life for months (sometimes years) for what ultimately was a two-hour film that I wasn't able to enjoy due to the "high stakes" in my mind. So I let go of that way of thinking and have a totally different way of approaching adaptations now. 

Now I basically see movie adaptations as visual fanfiction. if you're familiar at all with fanfiction, you know there's lots of different types of fanfic out there. Some is canon-compliant, others change basically everything. Some are retellings of a story that keep most of the important things but change a few details. Others only keep a few parts of the original, scrap everything else, and then just do their own thing. Sometimes it's weird, sometimes it's bad. But most of it can be enjoyed if you approach it as its own thing instead of comparing it to the original. 

I see it like this: imagine we live in a multiverse. You can't physically visit any of the other universes, but you can see how beloved stories were told differently in those universes. Like, "Hey, here's a universe where Lord of the Rings originally took place in a modern setting instead of a medieval fantasy world. I wonder what that version of LOTR is like!" Or "Wow, there's a universe where C.S. Lewis wrote Aslan as being a lioness instead of a male lion. That's interesting. I wonder what that version of the story is like?" Well, I can't visit that universe. But I can watch Greta Gerwig's adaptation, and that's the next best thing, I guess.

What's more, Hollywood is so keen on adaptations and remakes, I don't think we'd have to wait as long as people think to see another Narnia adaptation. I expect I'll see several more within my lifetime. So if I don't like one, I'll just wait for the next one and see what that's like! And of course, there's always the books. They never change, and they're not going anywhere.

The more I think about it, the more the news of three main child characters, one of them (a boy) Anglo-Indian and the other two (a boy and girl) white, seems potentially just as disturbing as a female Alsan.

I think the starting point was them deciding (probably for reasons of pure tokenism) to make Digory Anglo-Indian. Having done that they then found themselves unwilling to have a mixed race character be the one responsible of waking Jadis and bringing her to Narnia. So they have invented a new white character to join Digory and Polly on their adventure and take the rap.

Of course if true this will blow the entire structure of the original story apart. Any plot they contrive to stitch together from the wreckage will be second rate at best. 

Frankly, I think this adaption is headed for total disaster.

Hmm... as much as I understand why some people may have concerns regarding the Anglo-Indian Digory possibility - and yes, I get it, one way of reading this is "ooohhh here's more evidence that Greta's pushing an agenda I don't like!", IMO I think it would be wise not to start reacting like some on YouTube and other social media, but having a more wait and see attitude.  Some things to consider - there is the possibility that Digory's father could (in theory) have some Indian decent - nothing is written about his decent in the book, so to be honest I'm not inclined to think it's that controversial.  We do know that he is over in India in the book and only comes home at the end of it.  Yes, I know there was a lot of interaction between Britain and India during the period the story is set in - but why not a small extra detail of Digory being mixed-race at all...

Second point to consider - the other boy character being cast could potentially be a flashback of Uncle Andrew or an expanded butcher's boy, or another character that is in keeping with the story... point being, the fact that they appear to be after two boys rather than one, and one of them being mixed-race is not necessarily as controversial as it may appear and doesn't necessarily need to be read in the light of the rumour/news of whatever the Meryl Streep scenario is...

Maybe I'm just holding out and trying to be positive... but I honestly think that Greta Gerwig addressing the issue of the Meryl Streep story would clear up a lot of things, and I don't want to find I've got worked up for nothing.  

I hope my ramble there made sense?

I voted "Neutral / Wait and see." I'll admit that the information we've been receiving about the film has been surprising me! I admire Greta Gerwig's work, so I want to trust her artistic instincts. My current strategy is to not to get too worked up or attached to any of the rumors just yet. Trying to piece together the rumors is hard to process! I feel like we don't have enough confirmed information to fully grasp what Gerwig is going for.

I will say that I am excited we're getting to see a new Narnia story adapted for film. I feel we can also count on Gerwig for beautiful visuals. At the very least, the production design and cinematography should be well done.

Sorry, I know I didn't go into detail regarding Gerwig's faithfulness to the source material – I just don't think we have all the facts yet.