Deadline reports that the first trailer for Greta Gerwig's "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew" shows Emma Mackey as the White Witch in a metallic dress, a world being born, and Aslan, who will be voiced by Meryl Streep, ahead of a February 12 theatrical bow and an April 2 Netflix date.
The 2005 "Narnia" franchise spent two decades as a cautionary tale about what happens when a fantasy property is handed to a marketing department. Twenty-one years later, the fix is prestige. A prestige director, a prestige voice cast, a two-week theatrical window, and a streaming date. The wardrobe is still there, but the audience is now "cinemagoers."
The trailer's math is the story. A "modernized retelling." Emma Mackey's White Witch, described by Deadline as wearing "silver sparkly eyeshadow," which is the exact amount of detail you need to know about how the source material was approached. Meryl Streep is voicing a lion, which means the roar will sound like an Oscar acceptance speech. A "Stairway to Heaven" needle drop means the magic has a playlist.
The franchise that once asked audiences to believe in a wardrobe now asks them to believe the 21-year gap was a creative pause. The books are still the books. Everything else is a rebrand with a lion in it.
YOUR TURN: What else does a 21-year-old franchise need, a prestige voice or a limited edition wardrobe?
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