Netflix will create shows and movies based on C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia series, thanks to a new deal between Entertainment One, The C.S. Lewis Company and the streaming giant.
Details are scarce on Netflix's plans for the fantasy series, which began in 1950 with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, though the new deal with Netflix is the first time rights to all seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia have held by the same company at once, suggesting just how hog-wild Netflix is about to go on the kingdom through the wardrobe.
Producer Mark Gordon describes plans for "stellar feature-length and episodic programming" in a statement released by Netflix, but it's not yet clear whether Netflix will be adapting the novels individually, or using the world and those Narniac vibes in building out their own shared universe, similar to Amazon's Lord of the Rings show, which is set before The Fellowship of the Ring.
Between HBO/BBC's His Dark Materials, Showtime's Kingkiller Chronicle and Amazon's Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings, it sure looks like fantasy is poised to permeate our TV time. Some of these series are bound to inspire comparisons to Game of Thrones, others to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. But Narnia doesn't fit either too well.
Rather than a continuous narrative, the seven books in the Narnia series span thousands of years in the world's history (while only years or decades pass back on Earth). There's all sorts of strange stuff going on in Narnia, including the creation myth from The Magician's Nephew and a decidedly un-epic final villain: a talking ape named Switch.
Can Netflix's take on the definitive portal fantasy series break out of the Lord of the Rings mold set in the most recent adaptations, Walden Media's three-movie series which began with 2005's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? When it comes to Narnia, it's go weird or go home.
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