Meryl Streep Is *This Close* To Playing Aslan In Greta Gerwig’s The Chronicles Of Narnia Adaptation

While Barbie fans are still holding out hope for a sequel, and rightfully so, director Greta Gerwig is plenty busy with other projects. If you haven’t heard, she’s directing a new adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s classic fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. I can hear the naysayers now: “But those books have already been made into movies, and they’re not even that old!” Shh, shh, we know. But they weren’t made by Greta Gerwig, now were they? She’s already making big moves — Hollywood elite Meryl Streep is reportedly in talks to star as a major character.

Here’s everything we know right now about the movie, from release dates to which actors and actresses are on board too.

When will the new Chronicles of Narnia movie come out?

There have been rumblings about this new Narnia since 2020, according to Town & Country, but Netflix has recently decided to give us a little more info. The streaming platform will actually debut Gerwig’s Narnia in theaters — in IMAX only — for two weeks before it hits streaming. It's slated to arrive in theaters on Thanksgiving Day, 2026, and then become available on Netflix on Christmas, Variety reports.

What will it be about?

All the way back in 2018, Netflix shared that they would be developing an original series and more movies all based on The Chronicles of Narnia books. Gerwig’s film is the only confirmed Narnia-related project right now — though she told The New Yorker in an interview she’s set to direct “at least two films” based on the books.

So, it’s unclear where this first movie might pick up in the timeline of Lewis’s series, though the general assumption is obvious: at the beginning. There are seven books in The Chronicles of Narnia series, and only the first three were ever adapted for the big screen by Disney and Fox in the early aughts. They follow the four Pevensie children as they stumble through a magical wardrobe into a fairytale realm called Narnia, where they are called upon by its king, Aslan, to defend against evil.

What we do know is that Gerwig appreciates the series from a child’s perspective — she was a major fan growing up and wants to capture the magic she felt then onscreen. In a Time Magazine interview, she said, “C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books are something that I’ve loved since I was a child. I would say the two big books of my childhood were Little Women and the Narnia books. So I had that instant excitement, but instant terror that comes from trying to tackle something that has shaped me. I want to make it feel like magic.”

Do we know anything about the cast yet?

There’s not much news out there on the cast just yet, but there are already some pretty exciting rumblings. The latest and greatest: According to Deadline, Meryl Streep is in talks to bring Aslan the Great Lion to life in Gerwig’s adaptation. Although sources say Streep hasn’t signed on the dotted line yet, it feels hopeful. After all, Streep and Gerwig worked together for the latter’s 2019 adaptation of Little Women (Streep played Aunt March).

Deadline also discovered that Charli XCX has been tapped for a “key role.” Nothing is set in stone yet, but the singer is apparently in talks with Netflix about the film. There was a rumor that Louis Partridge — from Enola Holmes and Paddington 2 — was cast in the reboot, but his representatives have since told the media that was untrue.

Other than that, we have no casting news just yet, but plenty of fan casts on social media (Timothee Chalamet as Mr. Tumnus is a personal favorite). And while it’s not about a famous face you’ll recognize on screen, Netflix brought Matthew Aldrich, a co-writer for Disney’s Coco on board to write the film adaptations. If you’ve seen Coco, you know we’re in good hands here.

There’s sure to be more to come about Gerwig’s new Narnia films, and we can’t wait to see who will play *officially* Aslan, the White Witch, and our beloved Pevensie kids.