Finally, in early 2020, several fan-made posters went viral on social media. For many, this was the first time many had heard Netflix is adapting the books. In a chat with Georgie Henley in April 2020, who played Lucy in the Disney franchise, said she’d be receptive to featuring in the Netflix reboot but confessed it’s probably unlikely. Let’s start with the basics. The Chronicles of Narnia is a book series by the famed author C.S. Lewis that was published in the 1950s. I did not in the least feel that I was getting in more quantity or better quality a pleasure I had already known. It was more as if a cupboard which one had hitherto valued as a place for hanging coats proved one day, when you opened the door, to lead to the garden of the Hesperides... [34] Schools programmes". The Radio Times. No.4404. 11 September 2008. p.79. ISSN 0033-8060 . Retrieved 1 November 2019.

Lewis greatly enjoyed stories of Arthurian legend and wrote poetry about this world. MrsLefay visits Digory in The Lefay Fragment, and becomes Andrew Ketterley's nefarious godmother in the finished novel. She gives Ketterley a box from Atlantis containing the dust from which he constructs the rings Digory and Polly use to travel between worlds. Both Lefays are allusions to Morgan Le Fay, a powerful sorceress in a number of versions of King Arthur's tales, who is often portrayed as evil. The box itself is also evocative of Pandora's box from Greek myth, which also contained dangerous secrets. [38] The Atlantis legend [ edit ] Lewis originally titled the novel " Polly and Digory"; his publisher changed it to The Magician's Nephew. [7] This book is dedicated to "the Kilmer family". [8] The Lefay Fragment [ edit ] Dr. Alice Ward, "Dark Undertones in the Fantasy Writing of the later Twentieth Century" in Alexander O'Donnel (ed.) "Interdisciplinary Round Table on the Cultural Effects of the Nuclear Arms Race". The most important aspect of the Netflix deal, which makes it more unique than what has come before, is that it has access to all seven books. This means some of the later books that have never seen adaptations before could be coming to Netflix, which previous license owners haven’t been able to do. Some details of the creation of Narnia, such as the emergence of animals from the ground, and the way they shake earth from their bodies are also similar to passages in Paradise Lost, and may also have been inspired by descriptions of the processes of nature in the seventh book of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. [33] The Garden of the Hesperides [ edit ]As time passed, things continued to improve for Digory. After the death of a wealthy family member, his father returned from India and the family moved to a large house in the country. Digory and Polly always remained friends. In Narnia, all lived in peace. King Frank and Queen Helen reigned in glory. Their oldest son became King after them and their second oldest son settled in Archenland and became King of that land. The lamppost which the witch had accidentally planted burned brightly through the generations until it was happened upon years later by a young girl in another story. The area was called Lantern Waste. The apple Digory planted grew into a large tree and provided good fruit, though not magical fruit, for many years until the tree was blown over in a storm. Digory, now a grown man and a learned professor and owner of the Ketterleys' old house, could not bear to see the tree cut into firewood so he had the tree cut into timbers which he had fashioned into a wardrobe to be put in his old house in the country. Though he never discovered the magical properties of that wardrobe, someone else did and thus began the travels between Narnia and our world. Uncle Andrew stopped practicing magic, but from time to time he could be found talking about the foreign queen whom he had once entertained in London. Some doubt has been cast on the authenticity of the Lefay Fragment, as the handwriting in the manuscript differs in some ways from Lewis's usual style, and the writing is not of a similar calibre to his other work. Also in August 1963 Lewis had given instructions to Douglas Gresham to destroy all his unfinished or incomplete fragments of manuscript when his rooms at Magdalene College, Cambridge were being cleaned out, following his resignation from the college early in the month. [12] Autobiographical elements [ edit ] Uncle Andrew and the study vanished and Digory could feel himself rushing through empty space. He felt as though he was under water, an idea which frightened him. He felt himself rushing upward just before he emerged from a small pool. He rose to his feet and looked around, noticing that there were trees everywhere and other small pools, similar to the one he had just come out of. The place had a doping effect on Digory. He did not want to think of Uncle Andrew, Polly or anything else. He spots a young girl, lying near a tree, apparently halfway between sleeping and waking. She comments that she had seen him before. He asks how long she had been there and she responded that she had always been there. Digory states that he, too, had always been there, but Polly had seen him emerge from the pool. The two vaguely remember crawling about the rafters in a house and about people with dirty faces, but it is only when they spot the guinea pig with a yellow ring tied to it that they remember Uncle Andrew. Meanwhile, Strawberry carries Digory and Polly to Aslan. The Lion is still in conference with his chosen Beasts and Digory realizes that he cannot interrupt. At Aslan's command, the animals pull aside and Digory approaches, asking if Aslan would help his mother. Aslan looks away and asks the animals if this is the boy who did it. Aslan then turns to Digory and commands him to explain how the witch came to Narnia. The whole story comes out and Digory is told that he must undo what has been done. Aslan turns to the cabby and Polly. The Lion asks the cabby if he would like to live in Narnia. The cabby is reluctant because he is married and does not want to leave his wife. Through magic, Aslan calls the cabby's wife from the other world and the two are together again. Aslan tells them that they are to be the first King and Queen of Narnia. After a brief outline of the responsibilities of the King, Aslan declares that the coronation will be held soon. Aslan asks Polly if she has forgiven Digory for the harm he had done in Charn, and she says that she has. Satisfied, Aslan turns to deal with Digory himself.

Ryken, Leland; Lamp Mead, Marjorie (2005). A reader's guide through the wardrobe: exploring C.S. Lewis's classic story. Inter Varsity Press. p. 165. ISBN 0-8308-3289-0. You can see more from the original press release over on the official Narnia Facebook post, but here are the main lines: a b c d Lindskoog, Kathryn Ann (1997). Journey into Narnia: C. S. Lewis's Tales Explored. Hope Publishing House. p. 87. ISBN 0-932727-89-1. Then we got the news in November 2022 that Netflix was planning two movies and in talks for Greta Gerwig to direct both movies. When Jadis threatens the crowd, Polly and Digory grab her and put on their rings to take her out of their world–along with Uncle Andrew, Frank the cab-driver, and Frank's horse, Strawberry, who were all touching each other when the children grabbed their rings. In the Wood between the Worlds, Strawberry, looking to drink from one of the ponds, accidentally brings everyone into another world: a dark, empty void. At first, Digory believes it to be Charn, but Jadis recognises it as a world not yet created. They then all witness the creation of a new world by the lion Aslan, who brings stars, plants, and animals into existence as he sings. Jadis, as terrified by his singing as the others are attracted to it, tries to kill Aslan with the iron rod; but it rebounds harmlessly off him, and in the creative soil of the new world it sprouts into a growing lamp-post. Jadis flees in terror.Their aloneness is broken by the sound of a singing Voice, a lovely Voice that brought fear and wonder to the hearts of the strangers. Wether it was coming from all around them at once, or only from beneath them, they were unable to tell. Suddenly stars appear overhead and thousands of voices join with the first Voice. They sing with it for a time before fading away, but the first Voice continues to grow in strength. As the sound grows, the horizon begins to become lighter and as the music reaches its climax, the sun rises for the first time. The witch appears to understand the music, Andrew is horrified, and the others listen in warm contentment.

In The Magician’s Nephew, Lewis gives a vivid account of the dawn of the kingdom of Narnia, the primary setting in the rest of The Chronicles of Narnia series. The burgeoning vitality of this world finds its origin in Aslan’s innate, inexhaustible creativity. Those whom Aslan creates, or those who come to share in his world through their gratitude and wonder at his creation, are endowed with dignity and beauty by association with him. By contrast, those who mistrust Aslan resist and seek to exploit the beauty of his world, even failing to see it for what it is. Through this juxtaposition, Lewis suggests that the beauty and dignity of the world and its creatures is upheld by those who honor its creator. One additional thing we should mention in 2022 is that Ted Biaselli, a network executive at Netflix who is a “Director of Original Series,” lists Narnia in his LinkedIn bio, saying: Queen Helen: The wife of King Frank, the first queen of Narnia, and the ancestress of the Archenlanders The creation of Narnia may also have been influenced by his close friend J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, which also contains a creation scene driven by the effect of music. [37] Morgan Le Fay and Pandora's Box [ edit ]Uncle Andrew begins telling them of a great experiment he is performing. The children ask to leave because it is dinner time. Andrew refuses to let them leave but as the children further beg to leave, Andrew appears to change his mind. Before they leave, however, he offers Polly one of the yellow rings. Polly is delighted to know that she can have one of the rings she was so curious about. She approaches the tray, noting that the humming noise in the room grows louder as she gets nearer the rings. Just as Digory yells out to Polly not to touch the rings, she touches one of them and vanishes, leaving Digory and Andrew alone in the room. Jadis: Empress of Charn, who becomes the White Witch appearing in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe The Magician's Nephew is a portal fantasy children's novel by C. S. Lewis, published in 1955 by The Bodley Head. It is the sixth published of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956). In recent editions, which sequence the books according to Narnia history, it is volume one of the series. Like the others, it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes whose work has been retained in many later editions. The Bodley Head was a new publisher for The Chronicles, a change from Geoffrey Bles who had published the previous five novels. [1] [3] A BBC Radio 4 adaptation exists. [55] Focus on the Family also made an adaptation of this book with a full cast, sound editing, and music. [56] Both productions adapted all seven books.

Aslan gives some animals the power of speech, commanding them to use it for justice and merriment or else risk becoming regular animals once again. King Frank and his wife are then crowned. Aslan confronts Digory with his responsibility for bringing Jadis into his young world, and tells Digory he must atone by helping to protect the new land of Narnia from her evil. Aslan transforms the cabbie's horse into a winged horse called Fledge, and Digory and Polly fly on him to a distant garden high in the mountains. Digory's task is to take an apple from a tree in this garden and plant it in Narnia. At the garden Digory finds a sign warning not to steal from the garden. Lewis, C. S. (1966). "Different Tastes in Literature". In Walter Hooper (ed.). On Stories: and other essays on literature. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p.121. Hardy, Elizabeth Baird (2007). Milton, Spenser and The Chronicles of Narnia: literary sources for the C. S. Lewis novels. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-2876-2. pp30–34 All series and films produced through the deal will be Netflix productions, with Mark Gordon of Entertainment One (eOne) alongside Douglas Gresham and Vincent Sieber serving as executive producers for series and as producers for features.

Walden Media's Option for a Fourth Narnia film Expires". ChristianCinema.com. 18 October 2011. Confirmed 10 December 2012. An agreement among representatives of 20th Century Fox, Walden, and the C. S. Lewis estate determined that The Magician's Nephew would be the basis for the next movie following the release of the 2010 film The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. [44] [45] [46] However, in October 2011, Douglas Gresham confirmed that Walden Media's contract with the C. S. Lewis estate had expired. [47] [48]