‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’ is in theaters everywhere Feb. 12, 2027

NEED TO KNOW

• Greta Gerwig confirmed that Meryl Streep will voice the lion Aslan in her upcoming movie Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew
• The film is based on author C.S. Lewis’ novel of the same name and serves as a prequel to the Narnia book series.
• Daniel Craig, Carey Mulligan, Emma Mackey, Denise Gough and child actors Beatrice Campbell and David McKenna costar in the movie, in theaters everywhere Feb. 12, 2027

It’s official: Meryl Streep will voice the lion Aslan in Greta Gerwig‘s upcoming Narnia movie.

Gerwig, 43, recently sat down with Empire magazine to discuss the forthcoming project, titled Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, where she confirmed that Streep, 77, will voice Aslan, the magical lion who appears in each of author C.S. Lewis’ seven Chronicles of Narnia novels.

“I wanted someone who was profound but not pretentious, who had gravitas but not morose self-seriousness. Someone who could communicate depth and pathos as well as joy and delight,” Gerwig told the outlet of casting Streep.

The pair previously worked together on Gerwig’s 2019 adaptation of Little Women, in which Streep played Aunt March. Empire also revealed that Aslan’s facial features in Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew — heterochromic eyes and a red stripe on his face — are inspired by David Bowie.

“I wanted someone who was older than 70, so there was a wisdom of experience, but who also had the capacity of fresh wonder, like a child,” Gerwig added. “And also to be one of the greatest actors to ever do it. That list is not a long one.”

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Streep co-stars in The Magician’s Nephew with Daniel Craig, Carey Mulligan, Emma Mackey and Denise Gough and newcomer child actors Beatrice Campbell and David McKenna. Gerwig’s involvement with the franchise was first reported in 2023, and she and Netflix revealed the movie’s title and its Feb. 12, 2027 theatrical release date back in May. Streep was included in a cast list released by Netflix at that time, though her casting as Aslan had not yet been formally announced. Deadline first noted she was in talks for that role in April 2025.

The Magician’s Nephew is the sixth of the seven Narnia books author Lewis, who died at 64 in 1963, published during the 1950s. The story is a prequel to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, which moviegoers know best from its 2005 film adaptation. The previous Narnia film franchise only adapted that book, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the first three books published in Lewis’ series. The Magician’s Nephew follows two children in the early 20th century London who stumble into a multiverse and witness the creation of Narnia itself. Gerwig also told Empire that she took inspiration from British rock music in the 1960s and ‘70s and that the movie is set in ‘50s England instead of the early 1900s.

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“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,” Gerwig said in a May 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.”

An official logline describes Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew as “a sweeping adventure that invites dreamers of all ages to experience the creation of Narnia.”

The movie is in theaters worldwide Feb. 12, 2027 and begins streaming on Netflix April 2, 2027.

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