After the release of “Lady Bird,” if you would have told me that Greta Gerwig would begin her transition into a blockbuster filmmaker working on various major franchises, I would have been shocked. That isn’t to say that she’s incapable of such things, but her sensibilities seemed deeply rooted in indie storytelling and more dramatic fare. Sure, “Little Women” is a big film based on a bestseller, but Gerwig’s latest choices are more surprising, such as her “Barbie” live-action film and apparently, a new venture into the world of fantasy in “Chronicles of Narnia.”
That’s right, Greta Gerwig is set to direct a new “Chronicles of Narnia” film for Netflix, according to What’s On Netflix. Wait, sorry, she’s set to direct two new ‘Narnia’ films. So, it appears that Gerwig is going to be stuck in the world of C.S. Lewis for the foreseeable future.
For those unaware, “Chronicles of Narnia” is up there with “The Lord of the Rings” and “His Dark Materials” as one of the biggest fantasy series of all time. Written by the aforementioned Lewis, ‘Narnia’ spans seven novels and tells the story of various children who venture into the world of Narnia, which is filled with talking animals, magic, and various other fantasy things. The novel series was turned into a feature film franchise back in 2005, with only three of the novels being fully adapted. Those films started strong with the 2005 ‘The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe,’ but the franchise began to falter fairly quickly by the time the third film, ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ hit in 2010.
Eventually, the film rights were lost and the franchise expansion came to a halt. After another false start bringing the fourth novel to life, the rights were eventually acquired by Netflix and the streaming service began developing a new series of films.
As mentioned, before Gerwig begins work on ‘Narnia,’ the filmmaker will have to finish up “Barbie,” which is expected to arrive in theaters on July 21, 2023.