Empire Magazine this week unveiled the first look at Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew, and the images confirm what the director has been promising: this is not C.S. Lewis as illustrated by Pauline Baynes. The world of Charn glows red under a dying sun. Emma Mackey's Jadis stands at the center in a disco inspired gown, a reading of the character that trades Tilda Swinton's ice for something more chaotic. This is the first live action screen adaptation of Lewis's origin story, and it looks like nothing that came before it.
Gerwig has described the film as a rock opera. Not a musical, but one that uses music as structural logic. The premise licenses the approach: in Lewis's telling, Aslan sings Narnia into being. "Narnia is literally a world made out of music," Gerwig has said. For the voice of Aslan, she cast Meryl Streep. "I wanted someone who was profound but not pretentious, who had gravitas but not morose self-seriousness," Gerwig explained, "someone older than 70, so there was a wisdom of experience, but who also had the capacity of fresh wonder."
The ensemble behind Mackey includes David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell as Digory and Polly, with Carey Mulligan, Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds, Denise Gough, Susan Wokoma, and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith in supporting roles. The setting has been moved from early Edwardian England to 1950s postwar London, threading the film's rock aesthetic through a specific cultural moment.
The production carries a $200 million budget and marks Gerwig's first feature since Barbie earned $1.4 billion globally. Narnia: The Magician's Nephew opens in IMAX previews on February 10, 2027, with wide theatrical release on February 12, followed by a Netflix premiere on April 2.