@lamp-lighter Ooh good question! I think Harry Gregson-Williams' score for the previous movies was good. Not anything more than that though.

A big film like Narnia needs a good score! An obvious name that comes to mind is Hans Zimmer, but I would not recommend him for Narnia. One of (if not) my favorite composers is Thomas Newman. I'm not sure if his music would fit exactly. I'm actually not sure how I picture/want the music for Narnia to sound like.  

From what I understand, Alexandre Desplat was originally signed up to return for Barbie, having previously done Little Women.

Not quite sure why he dropped out of Barbie, but I'd definitely be looking at him as a likely candidate for Narnia, given the lack of any other details to go off right now.

Posted by: @icarus

I'd definitely be looking at him as a likely candidate for Narnia

I'm kind of hoping not. I am no expert in Desplat film scores, but from what I've heard he seems too slow and melancholy. Narnia needs something more. For example the theme song from Girl with a Pearl Earring (never watched the film, but heard this song), is almost a cousin to Gregson-William's music, but not as epic.

How about Howard Shore? He has more life.

I would be happy if Harry Gregson-Williams or Howard Shore were in, as you have @lamp-lighter.  To be honest though, I'd be happy with anybody who can capture any of the heart or the magic of Narnia through their music and composing.  One thing I would love to see though... and I admit it's a bit of a long shot, as Doug Gresham wasn't even able to get it to go this way, but I would love to see Meg Sutherland's Narnia inspired songs in credits for the Narnia films.  Her song "Doug's Song" would be awesome in the credits for the Magician's Nephew.  As I said though, I think it's unlikely - first because Doug Gresham wasn't able to get it to happen last time, and second because Meg doesn't appear to be making new music anymore...  

I've said it before, but Howard Shore (in my opinion) absolutely NAILED IT with the Lord of the Rings score — a truly iconic soundtrack that, right from the first time I watched the first film, just sounded exactly like "the" music for Middle-earth. (They play portions of it regularly on Classic FM radio here in the UK, too — particularly "The Council of Elrond" (with Enya's gorgeous love song for Aragorn and Arwen) and "The Breaking of the Fellowship". )

That said, I'm not sure (oh dear, "sure" and "Shore" are a pun with my accent, though they won't be for everyone here ) that he would be the right composer for a Narnia film soundtrack. Narnia has a rather different atmosphere from Middle-earth, and I've always felt one of the mistakes the Walden Media adapation of LWW made — good attempt though it was — was to try to go for the "sweeping epic fantasy" atmosphere with things like the dramatic chase scenes and the huge-scale climactic battle, when Narnia in the books has a much more homely atmosphere (in the sense of cosy as well as a bit rustic and humble).

I still reckon Geoffrey Burgon's score for the BBC TV version of Narnia is the best ever, although that does have something to do with nostalgia — me as a seven-year-old plunking myself down in front of the telly as soon as that incredibly beautiful horn solo starts up, with the camera panning over the ancient-looking map of Narnia and the glimpse of Aslan's face as the music reaches the "middle eight"...   But of course Netflix's version will be a totally new vision of Narnia — hopefully one that most of us can at least accept as a decent adaptation — and they won't be recycling themes from any of the previous screen versions, but doing something new that fits their own concept. I just hope both the music and the movie itself will do my favourite fantasy world some justice.

Geoffrey Burgon’s music for the BBC Narnia was the most like classical music. I was hoping that Netflix Narnia’s soundtrack would be something like that. The Walden films did have enjoyable music, although some of it may have been a bit too modern for Narnia. Still I have to admit that I really liked the music enough to buy it on CD’s. I don’t know about Greta Gerwig’s taste or if she will have any influence on what soundtrack music is chosen for the new film. I’m hoping for a majestic sounding soundtrack that is at least somewhat old fashioned since the Narnia stories are classic fairy tales with a medieval atmosphere. 🙂

I’m actually not sure. I’ve had a lot of respect for Harry Gregson-Williams who composed the first two Walden Narnia films, and I appreciated David Arnold was able to keep in some of the elements from the first two films for the third.

I’ve thought of Hans Zimmer, but his résumé seems to have no end. Though he might compose the New Narnia music, and he actually might be really good if not great.

Another I’ve thought of is John Powell, who actually composed the music for the How To Train Your Dragon movies. If he could bring the music for those movies, he might be able to bring something into Narnia.

I’m sure we’ll hear an announcement for who will be the composer before too long. Though I think the score doesn’t get put in the film until later in production. So we might not hear anything for a while.