Greta Gerwig's ‘Narnia: The Magician's Nephew’ Gets First Look, and She Says It's a “Rock Opera"

Here's our first look at Greta Gerwig's "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew," and according to the filmmaker, via Empire Magazine, she isn't playing it safe.

Speaking to Empire, Gerwig says her Netflix-bound "Narnia" is not a retread of the past movies; instead, she "wanted a rock opera," starting from scratch with C.S. Lewis's origin story, the one in which Narnia is actually born.

Now, don't panic: this is not a musical. However, '60s and '70s British rock, from glam to prog, is the film's "creative backbone." Gerwig rattles off Bowie, McCartney, Gilmour, Townshend, Page, and Plant as influences, and she connects them to Lewis's mythology. After all, Aslan literally sings Narnia into existence.

The biggest change is the setting. Gerwig moves the story from the early 1900s to postwar 1950s London, turning young leads Digory (David McKenna) and Polly (Beatrice Campbell) into members of the generation that would later produce rock 'n' roll stars.

The most curious line might be Gerwig wondering how David Jones became David Bowie "unless you went to Narnia." Is that a bit precious? Maybe.

A few months ago, Netflix held a test screening of a two-hour cut of "The Magician's Nephew" in New Jersey, though the VFX were far from finished, making it a very rough version of the movie. One interesting creative choice: despite the story being set in the 1950s, Gerwig reportedly uses rock music throughout the film. The soundtrack is intentionally anachronistic, echoing the approach Sofia Coppola took in "Marie Antoinette," where modern music was used to create a contemporary emotional connection with a period setting.

A month or so later, The InSneider reported that the test screenings did not go well and underwhelmed Netflix brass to the point that reshoots were scheduled.

"Narnia" is set to hit theaters in an exclusive 45-day run on February 12, 2027, with its Netflix streaming release scheduled for April 2, 2027.