Netflix released the first trailer for “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” on Tuesday, giving fans their earliest look at Greta Gerwig’s take on C.S. Lewis’ prequel novel. The footage arrives cut to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” according to Polygon, setting the tone for a film Gerwig has described as her version of a rock opera.
The story is set 1,000 years before “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and serves as a prequel to the larger “Chronicles of Narnia” arc.
What The Narnia Trailer Reveals
The trailer centers on Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, two children who travel between worlds created by Andrew Ketterley, a magician whose experiments set the plot in motion, according to Polygon. Their journey leads them toward the founding of Narnia itself, a concept Gerwig has leaned into since the project’s earliest marketing.
“Narnia is literally a world made out of music,” Gerwig told Empire. “It is a world sung to life by Aslan, and rock ‘n’ roll to me felt like a world made out of music.”
The cast includes Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Daniel Craig, Meryl Streep, David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell, per Polygon. Streep voices Aslan, the cosmic lion who sings Narnia to life in Lewis’ story.
Release Date, Platforms And Cast
“Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” will debut in IMAX globally Feb. 12, 2027, with early showings Feb. 10. Netflix will stream it April 2, 2027. Netflix delayed the film from its originally planned 2026 release in May, according to Polygon.
This is the first live-action adaptation of “The Magician’s Nephew,” though the book has been adapted for theater, radio and comics.
Why Fans Care
Gerwig has framed the project as a personal one. “I was a child when I first read ‘The Magician’s Nephew,’ and I fell in love with the gorgeously improbable but completely brilliant concept of a cosmic lion singing the world of Narnia to life,” she said in a statement. “I didn’t know that I would grow up to make films, but a universe built out of music is an idea that always lived in my heart. It is the honor of a lifetime to be asked to imagine it into being.”
Netflix shared a poster Monday showing protagonists Polly and Digory with their flying horse Fledge bathed in iridescent light, with Aslan in the background. The poster recalled artwork from printed copies of Lewis’ novel and drew positive reactions from fans online, even those skeptical of the adaptation. Some compared its look to 1980s and early-1990s fantasy films. IGN noted some fans still have concerns about costume choices and character interpretations.
What’s Next
The film debuts in IMAX theaters Feb. 12, 2027, before streaming on Netflix April 2, 2027.
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