I’ve just read the news that Netflix is producing a television series set in the Narnia universe of C S Lewis. I think everyone of my generation (shut up, I’m not *that* old) read “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” at least once in their childhood, and I loved the series before I started getting into Tolkien.
In any case, if you are looking for a post-”Game of Thrones” fix that you could watch with the entire family, this seems like a good idea. Netflix have outlined a Marvel-style series that is interconnected with a series of movies, but no word yet on which story from Lewis’ mythos they are going to tackle first. Matthew Aldrich, who write the wildly successful “Coco” with Disney/Pixar, will be the Creative Director of the various Narnia projects, so on the surface signs are good.
I am curious though about a culture clash between Netflix and Lewis though. Netflix is openly, front-and-center progressive in their programming, while Lewis’ Narnia universe was declared by the author himself to be a Christian parable for children. Lewis himself was from the conservative side of things, so this means that the Narnia series may get some pretty serious rewrites. Either way, Netflix is risking pissing off at least one group of fans.
If anyone has read “The Last Battle,” or even “The Magician’s Nephew,” they’ll understand why these stories are unlikely to be well-received in the current social and political climate. Storm’s a-brewin’, folks.
I dug a little deeper and I understand that last year Netflix Vice President Cindy Holland announced she hoped to diversify the streaming service’s audience to include faith-based stories – it’s an interesting choice, so we’ll wait and see whether this pays off or not.
On another front, a Narnia television series is hamstrung by how specific Lewis was with his stories; there is very little room for interpretation or crafting new tales in the Narnia world. On the other end of the writing spectrum, Amazon Prime (who are taking the fight to Netflix’s dominance of streaming), are hard at work on a “Lord of the Rings” series, set in the period when the Ring of Power was being created.
Amazon is going to have a much easier time of this. While Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and generally conservative, it was never overwhelmingly obvious in his writing; for him, the story came first. Another advantage is that Tolkien wrote surprisingly few specific stories in his sprawling, eon-spanning history of Middle Earth. Outside of the events of the “Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings,” there are mostly just broad-brushstroke descriptions of events and characters – perfect writing prompts for talented screenwriters to interpret and build upon. Given the multiple layers and cultures in the mix of Tolkien’s world, a good writer could create almost any type of story and character and still find a way to make it true to the setting.
In my heart I’m looking forward to the “Lord of the Rings” series more, but I’m still looking forward to sitting down with the girls and re-living the magic of Aslan and the White Witch.
If you have any views on the upcoming series, please feel free to share them below, and please also check back with me on Thursday for another Words Are Weird webcomic!
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