A Petition, a Bowie-Inspired Aslan and the New Battle Over Narnia

A Change.org petition signed by what its backers call "thousands of Narnia fans" is demanding that Netflix remove Greta Gerwig as director of The Magician's Niphew's successor — The Magician's Nephew — the flashpoint in a backlash that began well before the film's February release.

The anger has been building since September, when images revealed an Aslan partly inspired by David Bowie and the news broke that Gerwig had cast Meryl Streep as the voice of the lion. The first trailer, released just over two weeks ago, intensified the reaction: Christian YouTube, in the words of one commentator, "quickly became saturated with angry reactions and hot takes trying to catastrophize the new Netflix Narnia movie."

Douglas Gresham's family is not among the critics. The Lewis family, the writer notes, has given Gerwig its full support and praised her "sincere passion" for the series. Gerwig's adaptation, the piece argues, rests on deep research into C.S. Lewis and his world, and on a lifelong devotion to the books that "would rival any fans'." She is not replacing an existing vision; previous film versions and the BBC adaptation remain available.

What does the objection actually rest on?

Much of it targets Streep. Critics, the author writes, forget "that many of us heard tales of Narnia first in our mother's voice" — a loving voice that guided and comforted. Aslan's voice in the books is described as beyond human, a voice of power; the author argues Streep fits that brief even if her voice "never reaches some impossible ultra-masculine ideal."

The author, self-described as a Christian who grew up in a Southern Baptist family with Narnia read aloud nightly, found the trailer "magnificent" and praised its use of Led Zeppelin: "a woman is trying to buy her way into heaven, into power — sounds like Jadis to me." The film will show Narnia's creation and the development of Jadis, the White Witch.

Controversy is not new

Lewis's Chronicles have drawn fire from Christians since publication. Catherine Seipp, writing for the L.A. Times in 2005, reported that "there are more than 500 websites devoted to attacking Lewis for exposing children to dangerous 'occult' ideas through Narnia, as well as for being too accepting of other religions." Others thought the books too Christian.

In the 1970s and '80s, evangelical families treated Narnia as almost adjacent to the Bible in importance — the sanctioned fantasy, while Dungeons & Dragons was branded "evil." Yet the books smuggled in satyrs, minotaurs, fauns, Greek gods and talking beasts alongside the Christ-figure of Aslan. Lewis himself, the piece notes, said he started Narnia with images, not doctrine.

The author contends the petitioners may simply want a marketing vehicle for their faith, "like the Disney adaptations were." The verdict is blunt: "There is no faithful adaptation of Narnia in this political climate that won't be boycotted by some Christians."

Who owns Aslan now?

Narnia has long outgrown its bindings. Fanfiction.net alone hosts more than 12,888 Narnia stories. The author argues the Chronicles carry a "baked-in religious and cultural pluralism" and were made to hold many mythologies. Those who constrain who Aslan can be, the piece concludes, "could only hope to succeed by keeping it frozen and bloodless… and we all know which character wanted that." A caveat follows every promise here: this is one believer's reading, and the petitioners hold theirs.

The Magician's Nephew reaches screens in February, with Streep's Aslan and Gerwig's vision tested against an audience that has been arguing over these books for seventy years — and shows no sign of stopping.