Greta Gerwig Promises a ‘Magical’ Netflix Adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia: ‘Re-Enchantment of the World’

She recently was named one of Time Magazine’s Women of the Year and opened up about her thoughts on Lewis and Narnia.

What are you trying to accomplish with the Narnia movies? “Re-enchantment … of the world.” pic.twitter.com/WuJPfYqc2j

— Aaron Earls (@WardrobeDoor) February 22, 2024

“I would say the two big books of my childhood were Little Women and the Narnia books,” she said. “So I had that, you know, instant excitement, but instant terror that comes from trying to tackle something that has shaped me.”

Gerwig is a Lewis fan.

“I’m trying to make it magical,” she said of the project. “I want to make it feel like magic.” 

She then paraphrased Lewis: “C.S. Lewis said that the goal of writing fantasy — you know, something from his imagination — he’d say, let’s say you wrote about an enchanted forest. The goal would be that then every time you walk into a forest after you read it, you’d say to yourself, ‘Maybe this is an enchanted forest.’ So that’s a tall order.”

Gerwig, seemingly answering a question about her goal for the project, answered: “I guess re-enchantment of the world.”

She will write and direct at least two Narnia movies, Time reported. 

Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s CEO, told Time of the project, “It won’t be counter to how the audience may have imagined those worlds, but it will be bigger and bolder than they thought.” It will be, he said, “rooted in faith.”

Gerwig told Time she is attracted to the “euphorically dreamlike” quality of Lewis’ novels. 

“It’s connected to the folklore and fairy stories of England, but it’s a combination of different traditions,” she said. “As a child, you accept the whole thing — that you’re in this land of Narnia, there’s fauns, and then Father Christmas shows up. It doesn’t even occur to you that it’s not schematic. I’m interested in embracing the paradox of the worlds that Lewis created, because that’s what’s so compelling about them.”

Image Credit: Unsplash/Mark Rabe

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.