Following reports from late 2022, Barbie director Greta Gerwig has officially been confirmed to helm Netflix’s upcoming reboot of The Chronicles of Narnia.
The New Yorker recently did a profile on Mattel and its upcoming film projects, which includes Gerwig’s adaptation of Mattel’s Barbie fashion dolls. In the profile, New Yorker states that Gerwig has “a deal with Netflix to write and direct at least two films based on C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia.” Netflix has been trying to get a new adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia off the ground since acquiring film and television rights in 2018.
Who is Barbie director Greta Gerwig?
Gerwig is an acclaimed actor, writer, and director. Her career began with roles in several movies by Joe Swanberg, such as LOL (2006), Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007), and Nights and Weekends (2008). In the early 2010s, she collaborated with her partner Noah Baumbach, co-writing and starring Frances Ha (2012) and Mistress America (2015). However, she is perhaps best known for directing the Oscar-nominated films Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019). Her latest film is Warner Bros.’ Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
The Chronicles of Narnia is a best-selling children’s series consisting of seven high fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Originally published between 1950 and 1956, over 120 million copies of The Chronicles of Narnia have now been sold in 47 languages. The novels primarily follow the adventures of the Pevensie children, and later their cousin Eustace Scrubb, in Narnia, which is populated by talking animals and mythical beasts and overseen by the lion Aslan.
Disney and Walden Media previously adapted the first two novels — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian — to film in 2005 and 2008, respectively. A third film, adapting The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, was produced by Walden Media and released by 20th Century Fox in 2010. An adaptation of the fourth novel, The Silver Chair, was stuck in development hell before the Netflix deal. At this time, it is unknown when Netflix’s Narnia reboot might release on the streaming service.
