Greta Gerwig’s Chronicles Of Narnia Reboot Has An Impossible Problem Thanks To The Books

Summary

• Netflix’s Narnia adaptation faces challenges due to short book lengths, requiring careful adaptation for success.
• Gerwig needs to balance loyalty to source material while making necessary changes for Netflix’s Narnia films.
• Avoiding Disney’s mistakes, Netflix must stay true to Narnia’s spirit for potential hit adaptations.

Greta Gerwig’s The Chronicles of Narnia adaptation faces a difficult challenge due to the source material. Following the record-breaking success of Gerwig’s Barbie, she is attached to write and direct at least two of Netflix’s upcoming films based on the beloved book series by C.S. Lewis. While this is the first time Netflix has adapted the Narnia books, the series has been adapted numerous times in the past, including three films made by Disney.

Given her success with original stories like Lady Bird and Barbie, along with her critically acclaimed adaptation of the classic novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Gerwig’s involvement with the Narnia reboot is exciting. Gerwig and Netflix have an opportunity to tell the series’ entire story, going beyond the three novels that Disney adapted. At the same time, directly adapting all seven installments in The Chronicles of Narnia comes with its own challenges.

Greta Gerwig’s Narnia Reboot Faces An Adaptation Problem Thanks To The Books’ Length

It Is A Problem That Harry Potter And A Song Of Ice And Fire Do Not Have

A major challenge that Gerwig and Netflix face is that most of The Chronicles of Narnia books are relatively short. Many popular series that have been adapted into films or television series, including Harry Potter and A Song of Ice and Fire, feature installments that are quite long, which enables the onscreen adaptations to have plenty of material to use. While the length of each Narnia novel varies depending on the edition, as per the first edition page lengths, most of the books in the series do not exceed 200 pages.

If Netflix is planning on creating one film for each book, there may not be enough material to adapt each one. Choosing to combine multiple books into a single film may seem like a solution, but that presents a whole series of problems, especially considering how separate some of the books feel from each other, and with how the protagonists change at certain points in the series. This leaves the ambitious projects with a difficult quandary as they bring Lewis’ work to life.

The New Chronicles Of Narnia Movies Will Have To Change The Books

It Is An Inevitability For Gerwig’s Adaptations

Regardless of how Netflix decides to proceed, they will need to make changes from the source material, an inevitability that all adaptations must face. The key will be making changes that allow the adaptations to still feel true to the themes and spirit of Lewis’ books that are accessible to a wide range of ages. Gerwig’s work on Little Women proves that she is well-suited to this task as her adaptation made some changes while still honoring the timeless original story.

If each book is individually adapted, certain elements will need to be expanded on and further fleshed out in order to make each film feel fully developed. If certain books are adapted together into a single film, specific characters or storylines may be condensed. This could work, but also runs the risk of rushing through critical character development and plot points, and may make it seem like some of the Pevensie children are needlessly sidelined when their time in Narnia comes to an end.

Greta Gerwig Must Be Careful To Avoid The Problems With Disney’s Narnia Adaptations

They Veered Too Far From The Source Material

While changes from the source material are inevitable, Gerwig and her co-creators must be diligent not to change too much as Disney did with some of their Narnia adaptations. Disney’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was a largely faithful adaptation, but Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader took more liberties with the source material. This is part of the reason that Disney’s adaptations began to go astray, a mistake that Netflix cannot make.

Between the source material and Gerwig’s involvement, Netflix’s
The Chronicles of Narnia
films have the potential to become significant hits…

Just as HBO’s His Dark Materials was faithful to the spirit and themes of Phillip Pullman’s books, Netflix must do the same with The Chronicles of Narnia. Certain details will have to be changed, but changes that are too egregious will raise the question of why new Narnia adaptations are being made at all. Between the source material and Gerwig’s involvement, Netflix’s The Chronicles of Narnia films have the potential to become significant hits, but they will need to figure out how to best pace the series based on the short books.