I'm guessing if they adapt the books, they'll keep the Chronicles part of the title and if they do original stories, they'll just call it Narnia.

One comparison I can think of is Netflix's series The Witcher, which has a couple of upcoming spin-offs called The Witcher: Blood Origin and The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. Both of those are much shorter and punchier than, say, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy.

Posted by: @col-klink

I'm guessing if they adapt the books, they'll keep the Chronicles part of the title and if they do original stories, they'll just call it Narnia.

Hmmm, that's a good thought. It hadn't really occurred to me that if they call the entire franchise The Chronicles of Narnia, they run the risk of fans getting upset if they do spin-off series under that label, as if The Chronicles of Narnia can just be continued by any writer/director who comes along. Now that is sacrilegious, imo. A spin-off is controversial territory on its own, but there are only seven Chronicles and it should definitely stay that way.

Unless Disney has somehow got ownership of 'The Chronicles of Narnia', that could be used again. 

Alternatively, I'd probably be happy with 'Narnia: The Lion,The Witch and The Wardrobe', etc.

Hmmm, good question! The BBC definitely called their series "The Chronicles of Narnia", so as @coracle says, unless Disney somehow managed to gain the rights to that title, I doubt there'd be any restrictions on Netflix using it. But I can also see them going for something a bit different, just to avoid confusion and/or to sound more original.

"Narnia" on its own is a recognisable enough name that they could get away with it — and as others here have already said, that would leave scope for them to include new stories, which they have hinted they may do. Or I can also imagine them coming up with something different. Apart from "Kingdom of Narnia" (as @rose suggested), they could have "The Realm of Narnia", "The Land of Narnia" or "The World of Narnia". (I just had "The Magical World of Narnia" cross my mind, but that really is starting to sound like Disney. I hope they won't call it that.)

The only other term I've ever heard used for the series of books is "The Narniad", which I seem to recall was coined by Michael Ward (of Planet Narnia fame). That one really grates with me for some reason — it just sounds fake and cheesy somehow — but although I've seen it cropping up occasionally in articles and commentaries about the books, I don't think it's a very widely known name, at least not enough that I can imagine Netflix wanting to take a chance on it.

It'll be interesting to see what they do come up with when we finally find out!!  

Posted by: @courtenay

Apart from "Kingdom of Narnia" (as @rose suggested), they could have "The Realm of Narnia", "The Land of Narnia" or "The World of Narnia". (I just had "The Magical World of Narnia" cross my mind, but that really is starting to sound like Disney. I hope they won't call it that.)

LOL. Personally, I'd prefer them to just do Narnia if they can't use The Chronicles. None of the other names are quite working for me.

Posted by: @courtenay

The only other term I've ever heard used for the series of books is "The Narniad"

I'm not much of a fan because it seems to imply the series is one big story told in multiple books rather than seven related stories. But I'm not worried about Netflix using the title (unless they really, really want to market to literary scholars who are Narnia fans) because, as you say, it doesn't sound very...recognizable to the average person.  

@courtenay

I dislike 'Narniad'. It sounds like someone trying to be clever, using a classical ending (The Iliad etc). If Ward coined it, I'll never use it! 

@col-klink

I agree about the one long story vs a series.  We don't find anything similar to Samwise's famous speech about being part of a long story, in Narnia. 

I rather like the sound of The Narniad, probably because it reminds me of the words dryad and naiad and of all the Greek influence in Narnia, but I don't think I'd recommend that Netflix rebrand Narnia with that name.

@Courtenay, I think I'd prefer World of Narnia out of the ones you listed... although it does make me think of World of Warcraft.

One possibility that comes to mind is that they might name it after Aslan, similar to how The Witcher is named after its main character. E.g. The Great Lion, King of Narnia, Lion of Narnia. I don't think that's likely, and I don't really like the way that any of those sound as a replacement title, but it would be interesting and definitely a bold choice.

IMO, Narnia: Insert Book Title Here is probably the most likely format and I think the one that I would prefer, but it's intriguing to ponder other options, especially because it's very likely that Netflix is doing that, too!

Posted by: @rose

@Courtenay, I think I'd prefer World of Narnia out of the ones you listed... although it does make me think of World of Warcraft.

Ooer, didn't think of that. But making sure it's always called The World of Narnia would help somewhat.

One possibility that comes to mind is that they might name it after Aslan, similar to how The Witcher is named after its main character. E.g. The Great Lion, King of Narnia, Lion of Narnia. I don't think that's likely, and I don't really like the way that any of those sound as a replacement title, but it would be interesting and definitely a bold choice.

That's an interesting idea, although I can't quite see them going ahead with that — I'm guessing they'll want to play it fairly safe with their "branding" and not make it sound like they've radically changed the stories or the tone of the whole series. (Even if they have. ) I can also imagine that making Aslan front and centre in the title could upset atheists (because it's blatantly pushing religion) and ultra-conservative Christians (because it might be blasphemous), about equally!!

Along those lines, though, The Lion's Realm is a title I just thought of that really appeals to me somehow — actually, now I think about it, I'm probably cribbing it from The Lion's World, a very interesting book on Narnia by Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury. But again, as an actual title for the Netflix series, I reckon it'd be too unrecognisable without having "Narnia" in it somewhere.

Posted by: @courtenay

Along those lines, though, The Lion's Realm is a title I just thought of that really appeals to me somehow — actually, now I think about it, I'm probably cribbing it from The Lion's World, a very interesting book on Narnia by Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury. But again, as an actual title for the Netflix series, I reckon it'd be too unrecognisable without having "Narnia" in it somewhere.

What about 'Narnia, the Lion's Realm'? Probably too wordy, though.

I'd possibly suggest something like 'The Narnia Chronicles', with any spinoffs being something like 'The Untold Narnia Chronicles', which has enough similarity and enough difference to the original to make it stand out.

Personally, I would prefer, if they append their branding (whatever that may be) to the book, it would be nicer as, for instance, 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (The Narnia Chronicles)'. Although it is very wordy.

The original name works fine for me. That or just Narnia. 

I think Narnia: [insert title] would work best for any noncanonical productions, simply because it's shorter and doesn't identify it as one of the official Chronicles.

To be honest, I cant see them going with any name other than "The Chronicles of Narnia". They've paid a lot of money to acquire one of the most recognisable brand names in children's literature. It would be madness not to use it.

That said, the trend in adaptations these days seems to be to name the first season after the first book, and to then stick with that name for all the other seasons regardless (e.g. Game of Thrones, Shadow & Bone, etc.) so i guess we better be prepared for "The Magician's Nephew" as the name for all seven seasons! hahah 🤣 

@icarus 

Yeah, I agree! The Chronicles of Narnia is  the original name and I would like them to stick with that. It's easily recognizable as a adaptation to the books and no need to make a fuss over what to call it. However, I have enjoyed reading many of the possible names for the Narnian adaptations.  In fact, I was thinking along the lines of  Adventures of Narnia, or The Narnian Adventures. 

@rose Interesting question!  I agree; I expect they will call it something else.  It's been done before (the main one that comes to mind for me is "Game of Thrones", which I've heard was based on a book called "The Song of Ice and Fire" or something like that).  I do think they'll want to avoid confusion with previous versions, and to be honest I'm totally cool with them doing that.  No matter what they end up calling it, it won't be the Chronicles of Narnia - those are books.  No movie and/or series can ever truly duplicate the Narnia we know and love, the Narnia we pictured while reading the books.  No CGI can ever re-create the mysterious, powerful, loving Aslan I remember reading about as a kid/teen.  Actresses are getting better at acting like the White Witch, but none of them will be exactly as I remember her.  So if they decide to call is "Adventures in Narnia" or just Narnia or whatever, that's fine by me.

To answer your question (what will they call it) I kind of like "Adventures in Narnia"; needs work, but I'm sure they can do better than just "Narnia". 😀

Posted by: @geekicheep

It's been done before (the main one that comes to mind for me is "Game of Thrones", which I've heard was based on a book called "The Song of Ice and Fire" or something like that).

Yes, sort of — I had to look it up, as I haven't read the books or seen the series (not quite my cup of tea, as we say over here), but the series of books is officially called A Song of Ice and Fire and the first book in the series (published in 1996) is A Game of Thrones, which is where they got the name of the TV series from. (All the other books in the series are named along a similar pattern — "A [Something] of / for / with [Something]".)

I suppose they took the title of the first book for the adaptation because it was presumably the best known in the series and makes for a nice short snappy title — Game of Thrones — that presumably fits the whole series well. But as the corresponding first-published-and-most-famous book from the Chronicles of Narnia is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it wouldn't exactly work to name the whole series after that!  

Posted by: @geekicheep

No matter what they end up calling it, it won't be the Chronicles of Narnia - those are books.  No movie and/or series can ever truly duplicate the Narnia we know and love, the Narnia we pictured while reading the books.  No CGI can ever re-create the mysterious, powerful, loving Aslan I remember reading about as a kid/teen. 

Glad I'm not the only one who feels that way! I know there are plenty of big fans of the Narnia movies and other adaptations, which is fair enough, but to me, logically, the only "real" Narnia is what C.S. Lewis created and wrote about in those seven books. Anything else is someone else's adaptation or spin-off, whether it's good, bad or indifferent — and none of them will ever surpass or replace the books themselves and the thrill they gave us and still give us. (Well, they certainly still give it to me! )