Everything we know about Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movies as rumours swirl about Charli XCX’s role
Rumours are circulating around Charli XCX starring in Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movies. (Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty Image/Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Rumours are circulating that Charli XCX is in the running to star in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Narnia movies.
In 2023 it was announced that Gerwig, the Barbie filmmaker known for her nuanced depictions of womanhood, would be writing and directing two films based on C S Lewis’s classic fantasy novels.
Information about the film’s cast has been kept under wraps but on Thursday (6 March), Deadline reported that the pop superstar is being considered for the part of Jadis, the white witch – a role played by queer British actress Tilda Swinton in three films between 2005 and 2010.
What do we know about Gerwig’s Narnia films?
The first film is planned to premier in IMAX theatres in November 2026, before streaming on Netflix from Christmas Day, according to IndieWire.
Gerwig and Netflix have yet to confirm which titles she is adapting. There are seven books in The Chronicles of Narnia series: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew and The Last Battle.
The director said she was drawn to the “paradox of the worlds that Lewis created,” through the combination of mythologies such as Greek fauns and Father Christmas, and the British Empire, Vulture reported.
Netflix chief executive Greg Peters promised that Gerwig’s version of the stories will be “bigger and bolder” than anyone could expect.
Gerwig has been open about feeling “terrified” by the idea of adapting the series, telling the Total Film podcast in 2023: “I’m properly scared of it, which feels like a good place to start. When I’m scared, it’s always a good sign. Maybe when I stop being scared, it’ll be like, ‘OK, maybe I shouldn’t do that one’.”
Before any of that, Gerwig is set to feature in Jay Kelly, a coming-of-age comedy-drama directed by her husband Noah Baumbach.
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