Netflix Releases First Trailer for Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’
Jessica Chastain’s horror film is headed for a No. 1 opening weekend of about $28 million. CinemaScore gave it a D+ — the worst grade for any movie in two years.
Netflix released the first trailer for Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew on Tuesday. The film opens in theaters on Feb. 12, 2027, then arrives on Netflix on April 2.
Director Greta Gerwig previewed the footage hours earlier at an IMAX sneak peek at AMC Lincoln Square in New York. Former late-night host Stephen Colbert moderated the conversation with Gerwig before the trailer went online.
The trailer is set to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” The band has long refused to license the song for films. Gerwig said she met in person with singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page, who approved it because they love C.S. Lewis.
The film adapts Lewis’s 1955 novel, the origin story of Narnia and the first book in the series’ chronology. It has never been brought to the screen. Newcomers David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell play Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer. Daniel Craig plays Uncle Andrew. Emma Mackey appears as Jadis, the witch who becomes the White Witch. Meryl Streep voices Aslan, who roars the new universe into existence at the trailer’s end.
Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Denise Gough and Susan Wokoma round out the cast. Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, who wrote the score for Barbie, composed the film’s original music.
Before the screening, guests heard a pre-show playlist of David Bowie, the Rolling Stones and Todd Rundgren. The playlist hints at the hard-rock and psychedelic feel Gerwig is bringing to the material.
