Netflix released the first trailer for Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” on Tuesday, and viewers split sharply over her glam-rock take on C.S. Lewis’s creation story.
The two-and-a-half-minute preview plays to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Ciarán Hinds narrates the opening, observing that sometimes one story begins all the others. Daniel Craig appears as Andrew Ketterley, the magician uncle who gives his nephew Digory (David McKenna) and neighbor Polly (Beatrice Campbell) a ring that sends them through portals into strange lands. The footage ends on Aslan, voiced by Meryl Streep, forming from cosmic dust and singing a world into existence while a voice asks whether the children have ever seen one born.
Gerwig has described the film as a rock opera, citing David Bowie and The Who as touchstones, and she has moved the story from Lewis’s 1900 setting to the 1950s. She told Empire that Narnia is “a world made out of music.” Lewis published the novel in 1955. It makes the first screen appearance of the series’ earliest chronological chapter. The cast also includes Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Denise Gough and Susan Wokoma.
Online reaction ran to extremes. Some viewers called it the best trailer in years, and others dismissed it as a bizarre fever dream. Several mocked it with comparisons to “Thor: Love and Thunder.” Others singled out the closing shot of Aslan as the moment that won them over.
The stakes are high for both sides. This is Gerwig’s first feature since “Barbie” grossed more than a billion dollars in 2023, and it is the first Netflix film to receive a global theatrical release. IMAX previews begin February 10, 2027, followed by a wide release on February 12 and a streaming debut on April 2. The plan replaced an earlier schedule that called for a Thanksgiving 2026 opening and a Christmas Day arrival on the platform.
Questions about the film’s readiness have trailed the marketing. Industry scooper Jeff Sneider claimed the project was not testing as well as Netflix had hoped, and commentators have linked that to reported reshoots. Neither Netflix nor Gerwig has confirmed that test scores prompted any additional filming.
Gerwig has said she cannot remember a time before she knew the books.
