Netflix has announced plans to adapt C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, and there’s every chance the streaming platform will succeed where previous attempts have failed. The ’60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s all featured television adaptations inspired by the series of children’s books, but it wasn’t until 2005 that The Chronicles of Narnia hit the big screen. The most recent attempt to adapt the franchise petered out after three entries, and now Netflix has decided to reboot it from the beginning again.
Set during World War II, The Chronicles of Narnia follows siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy — the Pevensies — after they are evacuated from London. In their countryside refuge, they discover a wardrobe that transports them to Narnia. Time moves differently in this magical world, and The Chronicles of Narnia‘s timeline spans 2,500 years. As such, the Pevensies are gradually side-lined for other characters, which is one reason why the story is so difficult to adapt.
Chronicles of Narnia adaptations fail because the source material is poorly suited to a cinematic adaptation. However, Netflix’s version is in a unique position to succeed because the platform plans to tell Lewis’s story through a mixture of films and TV episodes. This deliberate evasion of its predecessor’s pitfalls means Netflix might be the first studio to bring the whole series to life. To date, the final three novels in the series have never been adapted, and the fourth has only made it onto the screen once.
C.S. Lewis’s Novels Are Ill-Suited To Cinematic Adaptations
The most commonly adapted into Chronicles of Narnia movies and TV shows is C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Not only is it the first book in the series, and an isolated story, but it is also the most compelling of the seven. Furthermore, it’s quite a straightforward tale to adapt. Disney and Walden Media impressed both audiences and critics with their take on the novel, which was released in 2005.
Three years later, they were able to recapture the magic with Prince Caspian, based on the second Chronicles of Narnia book. However, after that story, two of the series’ key protagonists, Peter and Susan, are prevented from returning to Narnia, and their absence in The Voyage of The Dawn Treader is painfully obvious. Disney had so little confidence in the adaptation of that third novel that they backed out of the project. Given the movie’s critical reception, they were right to be concerned.
The problem, therefore, is with the source material. All seven books play a crucial role in the overall story, but Lewis’s unique approach to character and timelines is difficult to effectively translate on screen. While The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian both primarily focus on the four Pevensie siblings, The Voyage of The Dawn Treader only features Edmund and Lucy while also introducing their cousin Eustace. By removing half the main characters, it’s more difficult for audiences to connect with the story. This is partially why Chronicles of Narnia 4 hasn’t happened, despite an adaptation of The Silver Chair being planned. The third movie also suffered because the plot was reduced to a series of fetch-quests – a far cry from the fantasy epic established in the first two.
Had Walden Media continued with their adaptations, the absence of key characters would have become even more apparent. The fifth book, The Horse and His Boy, for example, reduces the Pevensies to background characters, and then The Magician’s Nephew is a prequel, which removes them entirely. For the actors involved, it would have an issue to reprise their roles after long stretches of time, especially considering their characters disappear and reappear at drastically different ages throughout the Chronicles of Narnia series. In book form, this isn’t a real issue, but as feature films with years between release dates, this is an almost insurmountable problem.
How Netflix Can Avoid The Problems Of Previous Narnia Adaptations
Given that the second half of The Chronicles of Narnia has never been adapted for the screen, it would be unfair to say that they cannot be adapted at all. However, it is clear why this hasn’t happened yet. Unlike their predecessors, Netflix is not limited to either film or television. The streaming platform plans to adapt The Chronicles of Narnia through both mediums. This is an encouraging decision, as it will allow Netflix to devote significant portions of time to the Pevensies while condensing some of the contextual material. It will also hopefully prevent the project from trying to be the next Game of Thrones.
The Magician’s Nephew, despite being the penultimate novel in the series, is actually the first part in the story’s chronology. Dedicating an entire season of television to this novel in order to give context between The Horse and His Boy and the final installment, The Last Battle, would be narratively frustrating. However, a feature film before a final season would not upset the pacing of The Chronicles of Narnia. Alternatively, The Magician’s Nephew could be adapted into a single episode at the beginning, giving audiences the necessary background information before jumping into the core story.
The success or failure of Netflix’s The Chronicles of Narnia, therefore, hinges upon the nature and order of its releases. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has been successfully adapted for television, film, and even the stage. There’s no reason why Netflix will have any issues with Lewis’s first Narnia novel, yet it remains to be seen how the streaming platform will navigate the trickier novels later in the series. However, fans of the source material should be quietly hopeful that Netflix will deliver the first complete on-screen adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia in a satisfying way.
