Perhaps we might all be getting into a lather about nothing in particular? Or, to use an Australian expression, we are all "barking up the wrong tree"? Regardless of whether Aslan speaks through Liam Neeson, Stephen Thorne, or Meryl Streep, we never actually see the actor or actress, we only hear the voice, regardless of who is voicing the part. And how we hear the voice and associate it with the action & what we see, is so very much more important than the actual person who is enacting the part. Theatre shows might dress up Aslan in lion costumes or use a giant puppet with a voiceover. Did anyone try sitting in a life-size model Aslan, like some sort of Trojan horse, hiding the actor, whilst he/she pressed buttons or switched levers, using a microphone to speak into? Please do tell, when some on these forums have had much more experience of this sort of thing than I do, basically as a second-hand observer. I did see a performance of LWW with my family, years ago, in Sydney's Lyric Theatre. The whole performance was like something of a dance, & definitely rhythmic, where the actors changed the scenery around (on swivels) as part of their performance. 

Aslan, the character, has been on film in animated form in the 1979 animated version of LWW. For BBC, what did they use?  CGI has made it easier to depict Aslan in Walden films. How is Netflix intending to depict Aslan, the character? Now, that is the 64-million-dollar question. 

The Lord of the Rings won Oscars after Oscars when it was depicted in 3 parts by Peter Jackson. Andy Serkis who played Gollum in it, has told what he had to do, when sensors over his entire body enabled to get an accurate depiction of how the CGI Gollum character would talk, move, expressions of face etc. to marry up the actor to the character, to be depicted on film. That would be a real challenge for even experienced thespians, regardless of whether it is a man or a woman acting that particular character. 

Any which way (to use an American expression?), I hope & pray that it will be all sorted out in the end, and the result is something that does Greta Gerwig's plans & efforts so much credit.  

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Perhaps we might all be getting into a lather about nothing in particular? Or, to use an Australian expression, we are all "barking up the wrong tree"?

It's a British expression too.  

Regardless of whether Aslan speaks through Liam Neeson, Stephen Thorne, or Meryl Streep, we never actually see the actor or actress, we only hear the voice, regardless of who is voicing the part.

True, but the issue here is that Aslan is most definitely a male lion in the books, and in every previous adaptation of Narnia for the stage or screen, he has been portrayed (by whatever technological means) as male and voiced by a male actor. And now we're being told that for this new Narnia production, Meryl Streep is at least "in talks" to play the voice of Aslan (apparently confirmed by a reputable Hollywood website, Deadline), and that Aslan may be specifically portrayed as female (stated in the original article by Nexus Point News but Deadline was unable to confirm this).

There are some characters in The Magician's Nephew (and in the other Narnia books) that a director could possibly gender-swap and get away with it well enough, if there was seen to be a need for more female characters. I've already mentioned Strawberry / Fledge as an example, since there's nothing about his nature or role that absolutely requires him to be male, or that would make him substantially less convincing if he was portrayed as a she. A few purists might raise eyebrows, but it wouldn't have any major effect on the story. And we've already had the BBC TV production of Prince Caspian, in which Trufflehunter the Badger (male in the book) was played by a woman, and that wasn't an issue for anyone that I know of. 

But Aslan... Aslan is explicitly intended to be Jesus Christ, as the author imagines he might appear in a different form, in another world that needs saving. Lewis makes that more than clear enough in the books without saying it openly (I "got it" by the end of VDT, as a 7-year-old first-time reader in a totally non-religious family), and of course he confirmed it clearly in numerous responses he gave to questions from readers and critics after the books were published.

So, unlike changing the gender (or ethnicity, as we've discussed elsewhere) of a totally fictional character, there IS something far more deeply controversial about making the Christ-character female. Or even portraying him as outwardly male, with a mane, but with a female voice. Considering the books tell us Aslan's voice is "deep and rich" (LWW) and "the deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard" (MN, presumably the book that's being adapted this time), hiring a female voice actor to provide it — even a very experienced and talented one like Meryl Streep — is a strange enough choice in itself. Even without the theological implications of doing this with the character who we're meant to understand is Jesus in leonine form.

And from the responses we've seen on NarniaWeb and elsewhere in the last 18 days or so since the "Meryl Streep as Aslan" story first broke, I think it's safe to say the vast majority of Narnia fans are... not happy with this idea, to say the least. For most (probably nearly all) fans who are committed Christians, it's at best very uncomfortable, at worst downright offensive.

And even for the more casual fans, some of whom are not Christian or not religious in general, it's still pretty much a "Huh... what?!?!" sort of thing. Aslan is such an iconic character in his own right that making him female or feminised, for no logical reason, just comes across as bizarre. Like having Gandalf played by a woman in some new adaptation of The Hobbit and/or The Lord of the Rings. (For which you could at least make the excuse that there are hardly any prominent female characters, compared to male ones, in Tolkien's works — which isn't the case with Lewis's Narnia stories.)

In short, I wish this was just us "getting into a lather about nothing in particular". But if it really does happen — and while the rumour has not been confirmed so far by anyone definitely connected with the project, it hasn't been denied either — then it's going to upset or outright alienate most of the established fanbase for Narnia, without any significant gains that anyone can think of. As the Talking Beasts team all agreed in the recent podcast (highly recommended to anyone who hasn't already heard it!), even if everything else in the new movie is just spot-on true to the book, except for this change to Aslan, they'll basically be left feeling "Why did they have to do that??"

I really am hoping now that it's actually Gerwig herself, or someone on her team, who started the rumour deliberately in response to pressure from some higher-ups to have a female (or female-voiced) Aslan, just to prove that this would be a really silly thing to do. It's a long bow to draw, but no less so than some of the other speculations on this, as I said before — and it allows for the chance that we might get a respectful and reasonably faithful adaptation of Narnia out of this after all.

I was wondering if an actress could do Aslan’s roar. It would seem kind of strange to show a male lion and then hear a female voice speaking his lines. It seems kind of out of place. It would be even more strange to show a female lion where Aslan is supposed to be and have Mr. Beaver call him the queen of the whole wood. I don’t know if people would even want to watch a movie that switches genders. I would think Meryl Streep and Greta Gerwig would want to be concerned at how it would affect their careers when portraying characters inaccurately on the screen.  But maybe they just want to do something strange no matter what people will think.

@Narnian78

I was wondering if an actress could do Aslan’s roar. It would seem kind of strange to show a male lion and then hear a female voice speaking his lines.

Question is, how many men could do Aslan's roar, really authentically? And as I have pointed out, in reference to an anti-smoking ad, the very people who might be able to do just that, may already have compromised larynxes by now, or can't do the job for other reasons. I think we should just wait and see what is going to happen, & hope & pray for the best outcome. Liam Neeson or Stephen Thorpe might be my pick, if they are available, which they are probably not. Whilst Idris Elba has also been suggested when he is also British, anyway. But I'm in metaphorical Woop Woop, & nothing to do with the casting committee or Greta Gerwig, either.  

(I can hear in my imagination, some Narnia Webbers having a good try at Aslan's roar, themselves in the privacy of their own homes)  

@Courtenay And even for the more casual fans, some of whom are not Christian or not religious in general, it's still pretty much a "Huh... what?!?!" sort of thing.

And even less casual fans, regardless of their Christian antecedents, may have relatives, er grown children, who would say, not just think, they are overthinking the problem, if they tried to discuss their worries about the film, anywhere else but here.  

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Question is, how many men could do Aslan's roar, really authentically?

When it comes to Aslan's roar specifically, I'm certain this adaptation, like most previous ones, will use recordings of a real lion's roar, perhaps "amped up" by the sound department to make it even louder and longer than it would be from an ordinary lion in our world. (Lions' roars are very impressive, but often they're quite short in length — presumably depending on what the lion in question is trying to express — and when they do a lot of short ones in quick succession, it sounds rather like a motorbike revving up!   There are some good examples and compilations on YouTube, and I'm sure any movie studio will have plenty of samples available in their sound effects department.)

(I can hear in my imagination, some Narnia Webbers having a good try at Aslan's roar, themselves in the privacy of their own homes)  

And possibly coming out more like the legendary Maugrim incident in the BBC TV version of LWW — "Long live the Queen! RRRAAAAAHHH!!!"  

Seriously, though, there is at least one instance of a human actor doing Aslan's roar — in "the other" BBC adaptation, the radio play of LWW, in which Stephen Thorne reprised the role of Aslan. After his private conversation with the White Witch, when she questions whether these promises will be kept and Aslan answers with a roar, this particular radio version just has Stephen Thorne doing a very human, very un-lion-like "RRRAAAAAHHH!!!" — which doesn't sound any more convincing than Maugrim's did in the TV version.  

No, I can't imagine any professional studio, with a proper budget, doing that (and I'm amazed the Beeb didn't raid their sound library for a real lion's roar for the radio adaptation, as they did with their TV adaptations). What I'm more concerned about is Aslan's speaking voice. As I said, the books describe it as "deep and rich", the "deepest, wildest voice" that the characters from our world have ever heard.

That's the kind of speaking voice one would expect from such a large, powerful creature as a male lion — especially one who is being portrayed explicitly as "the King of Beasts" — and... honestly, it's something female voice actors cannot do. I'm a reasonable amateur voice actress myself, and my speaking voice is probably slightly deeper than average for an adult woman, and when I read bits of the Chronicles out loud for fun (as I do ), I just CANNOT do Aslan's voice convincingly, or anywhere near it, as I hear it in my head. And if I try to take it as low as it should go, it sounds absolutely awful (and hurts my throat and chest if I keep it up). I just don't have a baritone range. I'm pretty sure Meryl Streep (along with probably 99% of other women) doesn't either.

I'd be the first to say I don't think any of the male actors who have played Aslan in the past (Stephen Thorne, Ronald Pickup, David Suchet, Liam Neeson) have covered the full range of tone and emotion that his voice really ought to have. One of the Talking Beasts presenters (Glumpuddle, I think — I need to listen to it again!) also remarked that he found Liam Neeson's rendition OK but not really impressive. It's possible, as a few of us have said, that a new adaptation could use more than one actor's voice for Aslan. But none of this really explains why a female voice actor, even one as good as Meryl Streep, should be seen as the right choice.  

As I already mentioned, Trufflehunter was played by a woman in the BBC TV version of PC, and although I don't recall if any of the other characters referred to Trufflehunter as either "he" or "she" anywhere in the script, the voice coming from the Badger was very obviously female. I remember being surprised by that as a 7-year-old, but it didn't affect the story in any way; I would guess that with Caspian and the two male Dwarfs, and no other significant female roles in this entire story other than Susan and Lucy, they felt they ought to gender-swap Trufflehunter.

But there's nothing about the Badger's role that makes it absolutely necessary for him to be male and sound masculine. Whereas Aslan — who, apart from having a very prominent and iconic mane, stands for a person in our world who is definitely male, and who just happens to be THE most important and sacred personage in history for millions of people worldwide, and for probably the majority of really avid Narnia fans...

... well, once again, I really just cannot see how giving that particular character a female voice (let alone making him explicitly a her) makes any kind of sense, logically or financially, for a Narnia film.  

Posted by: @courtenay

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

(I can hear in my imagination, some Narnia Webbers having a good try at Aslan's roar, themselves in the privacy of their own homes)  

And possibly coming out more like the legendary Maugrim incident in the BBC TV version of LWW — "Long live the Queen! RRRAAAAAHHH!!!"  

I'd be the first to say I don't think any of the male actors who have played Aslan in the past (Stephen Thorne, Ronald Pickup, David Suchet, Liam Neeson) have covered the full range of tone and emotion that his voice really ought to have. One of the Talking Beasts presenters (Glumpuddle, I think — I need to listen to it again!) also remarked that he found Liam Neeson's rendition OK but not really impressive.  

An interesting a side note - whenever I read the books either to myself, or more likely when I'm reading them to my kids (as I'll read it out loud then obviously).  I tend to do somewhat of an impersonation of Ronald Pickup's voice.  I do this mainly because his voice was the voice I grew up hearing as Aslan, and for me his voice rings more of Aslan, although I would agree with you @courtenay that he doesn't cover the full range of the character as described in the books.  His voice to me, rings more of Aslan than Liam Neeson or any of the others - even though none of them fully capture the character.

I'll also admit yes, I've attempted the roar of Aslan or at least a growl and it's probably sounded somewhat similar to Maugrim's "RRRAAAAAHHH!!!"

I honestly am not sure how Meryl Streep could possibly be able to pull off the deepness and the baritone sounds as you wrote either...the only way I could picture Meryl Streep's voice working for Aslan is as part of a conglomerate of actor's voices put together to get more of a range of sounds and tones.  I'm still hopeful that either this is the case or - as has been suggested elsewhere, that Gerwig or someone close to her leaked the rumour to prove to Netflix management that it wouldn't be popular, and they should get Streep in another more suitable role.  

I know I'm going on a lot lately, but I can't get over the fact that the more I think about this "Meryl Streep as Aslan" rumour, the less it makes sense. (Especially in terms of the likelihood of commercial success, and cynical though it may be, we all know what Hollywood's bottom line is. )

Maybe, by joining in with the there-must-be-another-explanation theories, I'm just indulging in wishful thinking — if I go over this hope enough and spell it out to others, it'll somehow make it true. Or maybe it's even to do with the fact that from today and over this whole weekend, I and others who are Christians are commemorating a time when THE WORST thing happened, as far as those who loved and followed Jesus were concerned — and no, it wasn't just a horrible rumour, it had happened, and it was over, and there was no going back, no hope left for anything. (And why on earth did He, the Messiah himself, let it happen??) And then... and then...

(Not meaning to draw a direct comparison there, but that to me is a good reminder that even the most apparently hopeless and devastating situation — far worse, in that instance, than concerns about a fantasy movie —isn't always what we think it is.) 

Basically, the more I think about the idea that Greta Gerwig might have started the rumour herself (while NOT actually intending to cast Meryl Streep as Aslan, or to make Aslan female, at all), the more surprisingly reasonable it sounds.

If that's what's happening, it may not even necessarily be in response to pressure from higher-ups at Netflix wanting a female Aslan. (After all, they themselves ought to be well aware that this would weigh hugely against the chance of financial success.) My best guess is that it could just be Gerwig herself deciding to do something a bit cheeky and spread the most outlandish rumour anyone could think of about her own Narnia film, just to get everyone talking (and without her ever letting on where the rumour came from in the first place).

We can probably assume that Gerwig has been chatting with Streep — they've worked together before — and they'd both know that word would soon get around that "Meryl Streep is in talks" and everyone will be wanting to know what role she's being offered. So if this speculation is correct, Greta presumably got Meryl's permission and a vow of secrecy (and, I would guess, a big laugh on both their parts). And then maybe she just gave a nudge to one of her insiders, who quietly leaked a few murmurs to a rather obscure news source to start with, conveniently just in time for April Fool’s Day — but Nexus Point News, not knowing themselves that this story is a furphy, jumped the gun a bit and published it a few hours before April 1st. And then possibly the same insider gave a nod but no further details when Dateline, as a "proper" Hollywood news source, came calling a couple of days later...

... And the internet promptly explodes, and the fandom catches fire, and all of a sudden Greta Gerwig's Narnia project goes from "OK, this'll be interesting for sure, but we really don't know much yet" to "WHAT?! This can't be serious!... You mean, it is?? But why is she doing this? How could she?! Is this the worst news ever for Narnia fans? How is this going to work? What does it all mean??" etc.... just like we're all doing right now, nearly three weeks later, with — so strangely — no official confirmation or denial, no further news at all. But now EVERYBODY'S talking about Greta Gerwig's Narnia. And everybody is just about dying to know — figuratively, I hope — what on earth she's going to do with Aslan.

And then, if I'm right (oh please, oh please ), after a few more weeks or months of this turmoil, when at last it comes time for the official casting to be announced... Surprise!!! Meryl Streep has a perfectly sensible older female role, perhaps Aunt Letty, or as @Karisa suggested, maybe a female narrator (older Polly telling this story to the younger Friends of Narnia, maybe, alongside older Digory the Professor?). Aslan is... well, I can't guess, but somebody eminently suitable and definitely male. All is well after all! Of course Greta was on the fans' side all along. Why wouldn't she be? And that silly rumour a while back about Meryl Streep playing Aslan (ha ha ha) — nah, nobody knows where that came from...

All this is, of course, 100% speculation. But it makes more sense to me on every level than Meryl Streep actually playing Aslan. So until we genuinely do find out more, I'm sticking to it.

(And dear Aslan, I hope I'm at least partly right. ) 

Anythings possible, but I'm personally leaning towards either Gerwig and her team are taking a "gender-blind" casting approach to Aslan or, as you've somewhat hinted at @courtenay, that there's some wires crossed and Meryl Streep will be playing another role (Letitia Ketterley, Mrs. Lefay). I don't see Gerwig starting this rumour herself. I just don't see her having the time or even wanting to take the time to play those kinda games. Also, from what we've seen with the IMAX release situation, it seems Netflix are listening to Gerwig's wants for this film, so I don't see why they would want to die on this particular hill?

@courtenay Maybe it’s me fooling myself into believing it because I just need to believe that there’s something more going on here, but honestly this whole scenario does feel like a reasonable answer. Am I gonna bet everything on it, no, but my word is it a good thought and I’m prepared to hold onto it until I’m given an official reason not to! And I love that Easter weekend comparison; a good reminder not to lose hope in anything because sometimes you just can’t see what the final result is going to be. Expect the worst but always hope for the best is what I say.

For the narrator idea, my sister and I ended up brainstorming some more and considered that what if she narrates across the whole series (if they even do all 7 in the end, it seems like this franchise is cursed to never be completed onscreen!) and at the very end she’s revealed to be Susan, back on the path and sharing the stories that she’s personally experienced and been told by the others. Interestingly there are moments in the books that clearly indicate the narrator was told these things (or certainly in VotDT at any rate, I’m not immediately thinking of others but I’m sure they’re there), so that would actually work for the ones Susan wasn’t there for. I would definitely be cool with that, though I admit it would be a gamble to cast someone of Meryl’s age for a role that you’d need her around for for a currently indeterminate number of years. Like I said though, just brainstorming.

Am I prepared to accept that maybe we’re coming up with all these alternatives for nothing and it really is what it looks like on the face of it, yes, begrudgingly. But I think it’s probably helpful to spin our wheels a bit with other people who are also spinning their wheels so we’re not all just quietly driving ourselves mad with nothing but our own thoughts lol. Can’t speak for anyone else but I know it’s been good for my morale, at least! 😅

And as Little Women and other projects have proved, Meryl Streep isn't against taking on those smaller roles.

I definitely believe that someone leaked the news when they were not suppose to because they are trying to push the production to stop heading in this direction. My biggest confusion on this whole story now that I had time to think about it without the initial horror, dread, and denial, is that I am not sure that this production would make it past one or two movies without changing Meryl Streep as Aslan.

If the change is really as big as it is being touted, a female lion, I am not sure Narnia would ever get success past the first movie. And since Greta Gerwig only plans to do two movies, I am not sure the next director would want to keep the voice as Streep since the audience in general have not taken kindly to it and they will likely not gain the commercial success they desire. The next director in order to keep the series even alive will have to recast for Aslan. Also, I am not sure why Streep would want to be saddled into a seven movie deal instead of being allowed to take other movies. 

If Streep is just voicing a male lion, she will be dubbed over in other countries and as long as at least one other country choose a male voice, we will get a version that we can watch without her voice and the reason why they spent so much money to get her voice will be lost.  Frankly, if this happens, I will just watch it in a foreign language with subtitles.

@Pete 

I'll also admit yes, I've attempted the roar of Aslan or at least a growl and it's probably sounded somewhat similar to Maugrim's "RRRAAAAAHHH!!!"

My husband obligingly tried his best lion roar, mostly for fun. But the best he could manage was to roar into his cupped hands, not something he would be allowed to do if he was acting the part.  I'm glad you have mentioned proper sound effects, including lion roars, and consulting any available specialist library. I suppose there are voice synthesizers as well, if necessary.