Daniel Craig is being lined up for a role in Greta Gerwig’s new Narnia film, her first directorial project since her huge success with Barbie and the first product of a deal she signed with Netflix to make at least two adaptations of CS Lewis’s fantasy novel series.
According to Deadline, Craig has been offered a role in the film, which is currently in production for a projected release in autumn 2026. While Netflix has not confirmed which novel is being adapted, it is thought to be The Magician’s Nephew, which is listed on the Internet Movie Database as Gerwig’s next project.
Published in 1955, The Magician’s Nephew was the sixth in Lewis’s seven-novel series, but is the first chronologically. It acts as an origins story for the celebrated wardrobe of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and chronicles the creation of Narnia by Aslan the lion. Two children, Digory and Polly, are the novel’s central characters, with Digory’s uncle Andrew also playing a significant role. Speculation has centred on Craig playing either Uncle Andrew or Aslan (the latter presumably being a voice role).
Netflix purchased the rights to make film and TV adaptations of the Narnia series in 2018 – and it is the first time rights to all seven books have been held by a single company. Lewis himself did not sell screen rights to the books, believing it was not possible to make convincing adaptations. His estate later had a rights agreement with Walden Media, which released three Narnia films – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – between 2005 and 2010. However, the agreement ended after Dawn Treader struggled at the box office, leading to Lewis’s heirs looking elsewhere.
While confirmed details of Gerwig’s project are thin on the ground, Deadline reported that singer Charli xcx was under serious consideration for a role.
