Posted by: @col-klink

That's been the consensus on Narniaweb and, honestly, even on Narniaweb it's been mostly just Glumpuddle who's been saying they should cast a younger voice actor for Aslan. I can't remember anyone else saying that...

Me! I'm a huge fan of the idea of a younger, wilder Aslan voice. But I agree I'm very much in the minority.

Posted by: @col-klink.

That's been the consensus on Narniaweb and, honestly, even on Narniaweb it's been mostly just Glumpuddle who's been saying they should cast a younger voice actor for Aslan. (I can't remember anyone else saying that though that could just be my memory.) We don't know what Netflix's ideas are for any of the characters. Neither they nor Gerwig have actually said anything about them in interviews. 

To be fair, yes, I should have clarified that I meant on NarniaWeb.

If you look on the Casting Discussion thread though there are quite a few people besides Glumpuddle and Fantasia who have either used the word "younger" or suggested predominantly younger casting picks, so it's probably not a minority opinion.

Either way, if I were casting the voice of a female lion from a British fantasy book, I'd probably list off a hundred other actresses names before I got to Meryl Streep. So many much better choices out there.

OK, thanks for the reminders. I guess I just don't pay as much attention to the Casting as much as I do some of the other forums, partly because I don't have that many strong opinions on who should or shouldn't be cast myself. (I think there are a lot of great actors out there.) 

Personally I'm looking forward to shaking a finger at the very naughty person who started this story. 😠

@col-klink I am familiar with the original book. I'm also a history buff who spends way too much of her time on fashion history YouTube, sooo I may be ticked off over the lack of historical accuracy. That may have affected my opinion. 😅

You know, it occurs to me that it'd be funny if Greta Gerwig cast Saoirse Ronan as Jadis and Meryl Streep as Aunt Letty because in her Little Women movie, Ronan's character and Streep's character got along about as well as Jadis and Letty.  

Since this seems to be confirmed now, I think I'm probably out on this movie. I had hoped to see an adaptation of the Magician's Nephew, since it's such a great book, but with this casting direction, it's clear that Gerwig neither understands the story, nor is she making it for fans. She's more interested in getting brownie points from her buddies in Hollywood and earning critical praise than honoring the spirit of the book. I can't imagine decisions like this will make the movie a success, but who knows.

It's also clear that Gresham is entirely out of the picture, which I'd suspected due to his health being poor, but I can't imagine if he had any veto power in the slightest that they'd be going this direction.

I know we could argue how a female voice could work as Aslan, but I'm not really interested in that discussion. Aslan is a male character. No amount of voice distortion - which I can't conceive of them actually doing, anyway; why cast Streep if you're going to disguise her voice? - would change the fact that it's a woman playing Aslan. Pretending he's a male character with a female voicing him doesn't work. It's just more of the kind of abominable attacks on gender that Hollywood has been leaning into in recent years. Unless a miracle changes the direction of this film, I'm sadly out on this one. 

@justin I agree 100%.

I never had much hope that we would get a film that is really true to Lewis's vision but this news destroys any that remained. Even if they don't actually cast Streep as Aslan that fact it's even being considered shows clearly that whatever she might say, Gerwig simply can't leave her ideology at the door and is determined to make any adaption in accordance with her own world view rather than Lewis's.

I still stick with my earlier post opinion.

I'm going to offer some discussion points to keep the thread from going off track...

1. Yes, male actors have voiced female characters and female actresses have voiced male characters.

My comment on that: The female actresses are traditionally voicing pre-adolescent boys so they can keep the same voice longer. 

2. The opposite gender of what the role is intended will never successfully pull off all the masculine or feminine traits successfully. 

My point on that ... You wouldn't put a female actress in the role of Mufasa, Beast, or Gaston or a role so obviously masculine. Someone who has more of a tenor or the role will require a lot of high pitch squeaking or yelling would be one thing. But not an obvious leadership role. 

3. Even if this does go through and by some miracle they were to make all 7 books ... She's 75. She's not a voice actress. The role will have to be recast. This isn't exactly a one and done role. 

My point on that ..  they really need to take ages into account when casting a role that might stretch out over multiple films. Dumbledore had to be recast if I remember correctly because the original actor passed away. 

I'm kind of baffled by the confirmation. This rumor sounded so much like an April Fool's joke! As people in this thread have said, this doesn't even make sense from a business perspective, never mind an artistic one. It's not like there's a group of people who are loving the idea and a group of people who are hating it. So far, there's a group of people who are still going to watch the adaptation in a spirit of resignation with lowered expectations and a group of people who are now boycotting it.  Could Netflix really have read the room that badly? 

@col-klink It seems to me that they are less interested in the core fans of the source material and more interested in making this as awards bait. I guess that was always going to be on some level a priority with a director like Gerwig, but I had hoped that they'd at least make an attempt to remain at the very least somewhat faithful. Gerwig's Little Women wasn't amazing, imo, but at least the core story was recognizable, and I had hoped that maybe we'd get something like that with Narnia, but alas it is not to be. I've already cancelled Netflix and told them exactly why, and that I don't plan to ever subscribe again because of this. Probably a meaningless gesture, but this is a line in the sand for me, personally. I not only can't support it, it's completely offensive to me as a Christian. 

As I said before, it's not an automatic no from me. However, that doesn't mean I'm eager to see this happen. And if it does happen I suspect I will spend more time mourning what could have been instead of enjoying whatever the final product turns out to be.

I really hope it's still only a misguided rumour and that Streep is actually in talks for some other (definitely female) role. Even though another source has corroborated the story, we still don't have any genuine confirmation of this or any of the other casting rumours.

If it's true, I can only conclude Gerwig has indeed failed to "read the room" and doesn't have nearly as much respect for Narnia and Lewis as she appeared to have before now. And I'll own that the naysayers were quite likely right all along that she wasn't the right director for this project.

However — if Aslan IS portrayed as female, or at least voiced by a woman though still portrayed as male, I'll still be willing to watch the film at least once just to see what it is actually like and whether it's all totally bad. No matter what some maverick director decides to do with an adaptation, the Narnia that C.S. Lewis created — in those seven books — will still be the Narnia that C.S. Lewis created, and will still mean to me exactly what it has always meant. I just don't see any point in tying myself in knots over what is, in the greater scheme of things, ultimately a tempest in a teacup.  

Well, if this does happen, and we have a movie made with a contralto female voiced Lion (with mane), it is always possible to revoice Aslan. As with Walden films, there were versions made with other languages, with a whole set of actors to voice the characters. 

Next possibility:  IMAX - do they have an interest in the integrity of the stories and the central character?  Or how about pressure on them from major church groups? Might they refuse to screen it? Might Greta lose the Netflix job? 

Also:  any chance you get, see the productions by Logos Theatre. They're based in South Carolina, but have been touring Narnia productions, to great acclaim.  Currently touring a wonderful production of The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe.

Posted by: @justin

@col-klink It seems to me that they are less interested in the core fans of the source material and more interested in making this as awards bait

Does it even make sense from an awards bait perspective? I mean, I know Meryl Streep gets nominated for everything but...

Posted by: @justin

I had hoped that they'd at least make an attempt to remain at the very least somewhat faithful. Gerwig's Little Women wasn't amazing, imo, but at least the core story was recognizable, and I had hoped that maybe we'd get something like that with Narnia, but alas it is not to be

To play devil's advocate, changing Aslan's gender technically doesn't change the story of The Magician's Nephew, especially since he's only in the final third. But it's going to be like an annoying beeping noise in the background during the character's scenes. 

I've been thinking of what Coracle said about the C. S. Lewis Estate vetoing the adaptation and I'm actually not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I consider Aslan being a lioness to be a highly misguided idea and I'd rather such an adaptation not be made. On the other hand, we've been discussing this upcoming adaptation here on Narniaweb for quite some time and it'd be really disappointing not to get anything. I feel like there's going to be unpleasant discourse about this on the internet either way. (Not on Narniaweb of course. I trust the moderators wouldn't allow that.) But if there are flame wars about a movie that actually gets made rather than one that might have been...well, at least, we'll have something in exchange for it. I mean, that way we'll have something specific to discuss, like actual lines of dialogue or actual visual or actual music choices, not just speculation.