Posted by: @courtenay

Really, I'm just yearning for more definite, verifiable information that will either confirm the "female Aslan" thing is true, or wipe it out entirely. Then at least we'll all know where we stand and can each decide what to do next.

Absolutely agree. To be honest, I am moving forward with the understanding that Greta Gerwig is most likely wanting a female Aslan, unless proven otherwise. So I'm signing the petition and sharing where I can, so at least Greta will know how the fans feel.  

The reality is, the new Narnia team has let this news, cycle around for nearly a week, and have not taken the initiative to quiet fans fear etc.

That seems to say a lot, unfortunately

But I totally get where you're coming from. I wish Greta or her team would officially say something. Then we would actually know where we stand.

Then fans could band together in solidarity whether that's with excitement or making our voices heard. *Sigh*

Posted by: @anfinwen

I just saw the petition started by "Into the Wardrobe" over on X. I went ahead and signed it. I don't know if I'm allowed to share the link here (would that be ok, mods?).

At the moment, we don't allow members to organize petitions or campaign on their behalf in forum threads, but if the petition is within the rules of NarniaWeb Forum (e.g. no politics, respectful), you are welcome to link to it in your signature. (To edit your signature, click on My Profile > Account and look for the signature field.)

Posted by: @col-klink

Posted by: @whitestag

Now the only male figures in the story will be  the deluded and pathetic Uncle Andrew - just like with Ken (and the Mattel bosses) in Barbie. And Frank the cabbie - Sadly, it seems audiences will have to rely solely on Frank for some positive masculinity.

FWIW, as I mentioned before on this thread, Gerwig's Little Women had a positive male authority figure in Mr. Laurence Sr. Actually, it had two with the heroines' father. (He was implied to be more flawed than he was in the original book but that was bringing him closer to Louisa May Alcott's father who was the basis for the literary version-and the movie's version was still more idealized than he was. )

To both of you I must point out that there is an important male character in each of these books, one who learns from life's experiences, becomes a strong supporter of others, and is worthy as one to look up to. 

In Little Women and its sequel the young man Laurie does not fail to improve from his encounters and friendships with the March family, and eventually sees with clear eyes who he wants to spend his life with.

In Magician's Nephew we have a boy whose life is falling apart around him, who makes mistakes, but also takes brave actions, and tells the truth. Digory learns through his experiences, and through what he witnesses in his travel to Charn and Narnia, how he will live his life and what truth and fairness are. The last chapters show his taking charge of some things to make them right, and we know from LWW that he has become a man of wisdom and educational leadership.

In both cases, the male character learns from the good female characters around him, and becomes one of the good males. Gerwig take note please.

BUT we have not been told that Aslan will be a male.  We have not.  So, let's keep hopeful that the casting powers-that-be understand that.
Also that the CGI company is given correct direction on what the Lion character is!!

Posted by: @iamlionheart

The reality is, the new Narnia team has let this news, cycle around for nearly a week, and have not taken the initiative to quiet fans fear etc.

That seems to say a lot, unfortunately

I too am utterly flummoxed by their unwillingness to comment on this story. NarniaWeb actually gave them ample time to get ahead of this story, asking them for comment a full 48 hours or so before the mainstream media picked it up.

Given the PR train-wreck that ended up engulfing Disney's Snow White production over the last few years, which went wildly over-budget as they attempted to course correct for one disaster after another, and for which they ended up having to cancel the World Premiere event itself just days before release, it just defies belief that they could allow this to happen to their own film literally just a few days after!

The mainstream media reporting here in the UK, especially in the tabloid press, has been particularly brutal. I just don't see the film recovering from it.

Everyone at Netflix and IMAX who sunk so much money into setting up such a significant distribution deal only have themselves to blame for committing such a basic unforced error.

Posted by: @rose

Posted by: @anfinwen

I just saw the petition started by "Into the Wardrobe" over on X. I went ahead and signed it. I don't know if I'm allowed to share the link here (would that be ok, mods?).

At the moment, we don't allow members to organize petitions or campaign on their behalf in forum threads, but if the petition is within the rules of NarniaWeb Forum (e.g. no politics, respectful), you are welcome to link to it in your signature. (To edit your signature, click on My Profile > Account and look for the signature field.)

All right, I've gone ahead and done it — these arguments are what pushed me over the edge:

Posted by: @icarus

Posted by: @iamlionheart

The reality is, the new Narnia team has let this news, cycle around for nearly a week, and have not taken the initiative to quiet fans fear etc.

That seems to say a lot, unfortunately

I too am utterly flummoxed by their unwillingness to comment on this story. NarniaWeb actually gave them ample time to get ahead of this story, asking them for comment a full 48 hours or so before the mainstream media picked it up.

That's the thing. This whole concept of Aslan being female is going to be SO damaging to the Netflix film franchise that if it isn't true, the only way they can mitigate the harm that's already being done is by coming forward and confirming it's not true. And if it IS true... it's such an idiotic move that it will pretty much cause the entire series to bomb at the outset.

Either way, honestly, what do they think they're doing???  

Anyway, the petition is indeed worded very respectfully and explains the issues well without any insults or inflammatory language (and also without being theologically partisan). I particularly like this remark in it about Aslan as a positive masculine role model, which is something that's so needed in this world:

In today’s world—where so many influencers and prominent figures portray a toxic and false of view of masculinity— Aslan provides a meaningful picture of true healthy masculinity:

Aslan is kind, gentle, compassionate, and selfless.  He is also wild, fierce, brave and strong.  Aslan is not safe, but he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you.

While it is not yet apparent if Gerwig intends to transform the character into a female lioness, digitally alter Streep’s performance to sound male, or simply use the actor’s voice as is, none of these options are appropriate.

Hopefully the mods are in agreement with this being shared on NarniaWeb!   If lots of us can spread the word, there's that much more chance that Gerwig and her team will get the very clear message.

First of all, yes I love Meryl Streep. She's one of my biggest influences and I would love to see or hear her in a Narnian role, but NOT as Aslan. As I've mentioned before on a different post, I wouldn't mind a few voices that can possibly be gender swapped like Fledge for instance; Meryl can do a good job with that or Aunt Letty in The Magician's Nephew. For crying out loud there's so many characters to voice throughout the entire series. But Leave Aslan alone for a male actor. Sorry. I should've waited a few more days I think before posting, this has gotten me very upset.

Posted by: @courtenay

That's the thing. This whole concept of Aslan being female is going to be SO damaging to the Netflix film franchise that if it isn't true, the only way they can mitigate the harm that's already being done is by coming forward and confirming it's not true. And if it IS true... it's such an idiotic move that it will pretty much cause the entire series to bomb at the outset.

I cannot believe that they would be that foolish. 

I'm expecting to see a proper Aslan with a mane - can they buy the same animation material from whoever created the Walden one?  

HOW Aslan speaks, with deep mellow voice, does not matter as much.

(Half the world doesn't know what a female lion looks like anyway, I suspect!)

Tashlan of “The Last Battle”? - well maybe.

Aslan? Hard no.

If they, hypothetically, proceeded with such an insane idea, I guess the fans were justified to make sure of the downfall of the movie. Maybe IMDB 1.0?

Again, we are here talking about the heritage of C. S. Lewis.

I'm still reeling from this. I want to believe they're going to just keep the character male and alter Streep's voice to give it an unusual but interesting/believable quality. But it's just as possible, if not more likely, that they're planning to distort Aslan completely, and possibly the whole series along with it. 

 I'm holding out hope this will fall through or turn out for the better, but if these are the kinds of decisions we can look forward to, I'm probably going to be done with this. I would rather the Lewis estate refused to sell the rights for adaptations ever again than see vandalism like this take place every few years. 

The lack of communication from Gerwig and her team makes this even worse. It's like they know the upset this decision is causing and refuse to do anything about it. It's almost as if they don't realize it's the fans who are giving their project life... and who can see to its complete failure if not listened to. 

I was so sad to find out about this. I hope they will keep Aslan male, because turning him into a lioness would be such a slap in the face.

As far as we know nothing has been confirmed yet. If Meryl Streep is “ in talks” she could still decline the role or be selected for another part in the movie.  We don’t even know how she feels about the part. So I think some of the concerns may be premature.  I hope Greta Gerwig has someone else in mind who would be better as Aslan.

Posted by: @narnian78

As far as we know nothing has been confirmed yet. If Meryl Streep is “ in talks” she could still decline the role or be selected for another part in the movie.  We don’t even know how she feels about the part. So I think some of the concerns may be premature.  I hope Greta Gerwig has someone else in mind who would be better as Aslan.

I agree, and I'm still hoping against hope that it'll turn out to be untrue and this whole kerfuffle will have been for nothing. But as Netflix has done nothing to correct the rumour, if it is untrue, there are only two possibilities left:

1. It IS true that Aslan is going to be female (or at least have a feminine voice), and the people making this film simply don't care about the huge backlash from fans worldwide.
2. It ISN'T true, but they still don't care about the damage this rumour is doing to their film and their brand as they let it keep on circulating without any response.

Neither possibililty is very encouraging at all.  

A couple of days ago, I was willing to let it slide by as a pretty obvious April Fool's Day prank, but neither the website that originally broke the "news", nor anybody associated with the film itself, has come forward to admit it was a joke.

Posted by: @icarus

Given the PR train-wreck that ended up engulfing Disney's Snow White production over the last few years, which went wildly over-budget as they attempted to course correct for one disaster after another, and for which they ended up having to cancel the World Premiere event itself just days before release, it just defies belief that they could allow this to happen to their own film literally just a few days after!

The mainstream media reporting here in the UK, especially in the tabloid press, has been particularly brutal. I just don't see the film recovering from it.

Everyone at Netflix and IMAX who sunk so much money into setting up such a significant distribution deal only have themselves to blame for committing such a basic unforced error.

This is a HUGELY relevant point. Probably most of us have heard about the "PR train-wreck", as Icarus puts it, of Disney's Snow White remake. This is not the place to discuss any of the specific controversies about it, but even just following the news casually from a range of different sources with different slants, as I do, I can tell you, even here in Britain, it is not only conservative / traditionalist commentators who are panning that movie. Even the most left-wing of the mainstream UK newspapers has absolutely rubbished it, in more than one review.

Basically, it turns out that making drastic changes to a classic children's story, for no reason other than to add a partisan slant or "message" that is alien to the original story, is actually a really, really, really bad idea.  

Anyway, NarniaWeb has now also given us a "Ways to Share Feedback" page that gives the (publicly available) contact details for a number of people and organisations involved with the production, so that's very helpful for anybody who wants to reach out and share their concerns directly (and respectfully). Many thanks to Glumpuddle (@gp) for setting that up.

I'm considering writing a post on my blog about this news, but I feel like I should wait until the Netflix producers or Greta Gerwig herself talk about this decision in an interview. (Or, alternatively, after it turns out that Narniaweb's source was completely mistaken.) Like Impending Doom wrote, Gerwig seems to be good "on paper." Maybe her explanation will convince me that this is actually a great idea. I'm not finding that very likely but there's a slight possibility.

On the other hand, the main reason I'd like to do a blog post about it is because I know many of my friends and family are going to be asking about my reaction and talking about it kind of makes me depressed, so it'd be great if I could just tell them to read my blog. Also, while my feelings about Netflix's Aslan being voiced by Meryl Streep or another actress are pretty much all negative, there are issues related to the discussion where I do honestly have mixed feelings and it's easier to articulate them in a blog post than in conversation, so part of me would like to get started right away. 

Does anyone have an estimate of how long it will be until we get an interview about this? Like others in this thread, I'm baffled that Netflix isn't doing more damage control with PR here. 

UPDATE: The reason I didn't mention Laurie in my comment about Little Women was that he's not a particularly powerful male character like his grandfather and The White Stag seemed to be specifically cynical about Gerwig writing benevolent male characters in positions of power.

Sorry to interrupt the discussion, but I should clarify this:

Posted by: @rose

At the moment, we don't allow members to organize petitions or campaign on their behalf in forum threads, but if the petition is within the rules of NarniaWeb Forum (e.g. no politics, respectful), you are welcome to link to it in your signature. (To edit your signature, click on My Profile > Account and look for the signature field.)

Signatures don't show up if you're viewing the forum on mobile, only on desktop. This was originally done for formatting and ease of reading, but since we have some members who are mostly engaging with the forum on mobile devices, I'll look into adjusting it.

(This may take a while because I'm exhausted and do not want to break anything. )

Now, back to the topic at hand...

Posted by: @darthvader

Aslan? Hard no.

If they, hypothetically, proceeded with such an insane idea, I guess the fans were justified to make sure of the downfall of the movie. Maybe IMDB 1.0?

Again, we are here talking about the heritage of C. S. Lewis.

I totally get the gut reaction, and honestly, I've had similar thoughts.

For me, it’s important to stay open-minded. Like many have suggested, maybe she’s just one of several voices used to create a more layered or unique vocal. They might pitch or filter the voice to sound more “lion-like.” Or maybe they’re even planning to have different voice actors for Aslan across different films. Who knows?

Even if the rumours are completely true, there’s also the real (but admittedly far-fetched) possibility that everything else about Aslan’s character, dialogue, and presence could be completely on point. If that’s the case, and the only thing I have an issue with is that a woman voices him, I want to still be able to evaluate it on its own merits. 

What I really don’t support is the idea of review-bombing or actively rooting for a movie to fail before we even know what it is. I don't think that's what you're suggesting — just something I’ve seen from a few corners of the internet lately, and I don’t think that’s productive.

Also, welcome to the NarniaWeb forum @darthvader! Hope to see you around 😊