Greta Gerwig’s first Narnia film begins with the story of how the fantasy realm came into being. The first trailer for The Magician’s Nephew, the book’s first live-action adaptation, sets that origin story against bright colors and rock-and-roll energy.
C.S. Lewis published The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe first in The Chronicles of Narnia, but it wasn’t the book he wanted readers to start with. Five years later, he published The Magician’s Nephew, a prequel about the creation of the fantasy realm. Gerwig, the writer-director of Barbie and Little Women, is beginning her big-screen adaptation of the series with that earlier-in-the-story tale.
Gerwig has previously described the film as a ’60s, David Bowie-inspired rock non-musical. The trailer’s vivid colors and rock-and-roll style fit that description. It takes viewers from a dark, drab England toward the birth of another dimension. In the final moments, Meryl Streep’s Aslan comes to life among the cosmos, while brief glimpses also hint that evil will enter the land.
The cast also includes David McKenna, Beatrice Campbell, Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds, Daniel Craig, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Denise Gough, and Susan Wokoma. Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt are composing an original score.
Some readers have worried that Gerwig’s adaptation, which moves the story forward by many decades, may stray from Lewis’ book. The trailer, at least, conveys the novel’s awe and sense of wonder. Whether the full film does the same will become clearer when it reaches IMAX and regular theaters on February 12, 2027. It is scheduled to debut on Netflix on April 2, 2027.
