I'll just add here, another thing which gives me some degree of belief that my supposition above is correct, and that is to compare and contrast the sorts of news and search results we were seeing before November, to those after.

All summer, it had been absolutely baffling me, that if Narnia had generally moved from "Development" into actual Pre-Production work, then why weren't we seeing any evidence of it online?

Even if we accept the premise that Greta Gerwig wants to keep things under wraps, and even if we accept the premise that Netflix doesn't like to pre-promote it's movies prior to release, it would still be absolutely unprecedented, impractical, and undesirable for a movie to bind absolutely everyone up in total secrecy using Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)

Take a look at any other major movie currently scheduled for Summer 2026, and even the highly secretive ones like Avengers 5 still have tonnes of credits listed on IMDB or elsewhere for a variety of behind-camera roles. You simply can't perform the necessary actions of movie pre-production without leaving a significant digital footprint online.

Think studio booking, location scouting ,casting calls, set building, concept design, etc.  All those roles need to be staffed, and that inevitably leaves a digital footprint.- particularly when it's a high profile production like Greta Gerwig and Narnia.

And yet prior to November I could find absolutely nothing online. Not even a fraction of a lead..... Not only that, but all of the news stories that did come out seemed to be about high-level executive meetings, such as negotiating a distribution and release deal with IMAX iI e. development phase stuff).

Admittedly, we still don't seem to have any non-executice producers on the credit list -; i.e  the sorts of hands-on Producer that would actually handle day-to-day operations on a large scale production, but to me at least, we are at least finally starting to see those telltale online indicators that actual production tasks are starting to take place.

I found a website which lists the typical factors that need to be in place for a movie to get Green Lit (i.e. to move from Development into Production), and they cite that in order to be greenlit, a project should meet most of the following criteria:

• Mutually approved Script

• Mutually approved Budget

• Mutually approved Production Schedule

• Lead actors attached (at minimum a letter of intent from actor or rep)

• Director attached (at minimum a letter of intent from actor or rep)

• Fully executed agreement with a funding source(s) that outlines the amount to be invested, and a cash flow that is in accordance with the talent and crew payments.

• Proof of funds in the bank, or at least fully accounted for (i.e. enough cash in the bank, or the bank has approved all the essential elements and will loan against distribution contracts and tax credits)

https://www.theentertainmentexpert.com/blog-2/greenlitto-be-or-not-to-be-when-is-your-movie-a-go

It kind of feels to me that the IMAX distribution discussions, and setting the release date were the final part of that process, and that since then all those little bits and pieces we have started to see online  are the gears of production finally starting to spin into life.

I could be absolutely wrong about all of this, and we could still find ourselves dragged back to square one, but for now I'm definitely getting the sense of there finally being some initial momentum on the project. 

At the risk of triple-posting on my own thread, I'll just add here to say that today's announcement that filming is set to begin in July 2025 more-or-less confirms the timeline I'd outlined above - that the green light was probably given in late October, that the Production Team started by hiring Admin staff in November (with both The Times and PW picking up on the start of the production activity by the end of November / early December) and that now we should expect to see initial Crew Hires taking place over the Winter (for things like Concept Art and Production Design) allowing plenty of time for the subsequent Set-Building and Prop/Costume creation to take place prior to a Summer 2025 shoot.

I'm not quite sure whether I can make both the Somerset/London casting call and the Shepperton/Malta crew-call fit perfectly (though i'll keep an eye out to see if the former shifts in date) but the latter of those two definitely feels like its firmly in-play right now, if only because I'n struggling to find an alternative "Netflix sequel" that fits the schedule (and I can easily imagine whoever wrote that advert heard "new Narnia film" and translated it into "sequel")

Anyway, happy to close off this thread for now, since I feel like we all ought to be pretty confident that initial production work is in full swing now.