I stood in a dim theater lobby as a poster of Aslan lit up my phone screen. You expect Greta Gerwig—fresh from Barbie—to go domestic and gentle; instead she told Empire she chased British rock and roll. That confession quietly rearranged how I imagined a Narnia film could sound and feel.
There were bombed-out playgrounds and kids who made castles from rubble — Why Gerwig reset The Magician’s Nephew to the 1950s
I want you to hold the surprising choice as evidence, not gimmick. C. S. Lewis wrote the book years earlier, but Gerwig moves the setting to the moment the author published it: the mid-1950s. That’s when future rock icons like David Jones (who became David Bowie), Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were forming the emotional grammar of their art.
Gerwig told Empire she wanted “a rock opera” in spirit: big, transporting, born from British rock’s response to loss and improvisation. The film isn’t a musical, but it borrows rock’s emotional architecture — scenes built as if they were songs, not just dialogue.
There’s a list of names taped to a director’s notebook — How rock shaped the emotional logic of the film
I’ve spent years watching how filmmakers translate mood into sound. Gerwig didn’t pick Bowie or Pete Townshend at random: she cited David Bowie, Paul McCartney, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant as lifelines. When she says “they saved my life,” she’s offering an artistic map: that music soothed the ache of postwar Britain and made new imaginations possible.
She treats music as architecture, building scenes like a cathedral of sound. Her cast and designers worked with concept artist Jaime Jones to imagine Aslan’s creation as an act that sings a universe awake, so the film will feel composed almost symphonically.
There is a practical calendar on studio desks — When you can see Gerwig’s version and how it will arrive
When will Greta Gerwig’s Narnia be released?
The Magician’s Nephew lands in theaters on February 12, 2027, and reaches Netflix on April 2, 2027. If you plan a first-night screening, expect the average U.S. ticket price to be about $15 (€14).
Is The Magician’s Nephew a musical?
No. Gerwig told Empire she didn’t make a traditional musical. Think of the film as music shaping mood and story: score, rhythm, and the sensibility of British rock inform shots, pacing, and even Aslan’s presence without characters breaking into song.
What inspired Greta Gerwig’s Narnia?
Gerwig credits the emotional work of 1960s–70s British rock: Bowie, McCartney, Gilmour, Townshend, Page, Plant. Their response to loss, rubble, and sudden possibility became her blueprint for a Narnia that is created, in cinematic terms, by sound and memory.
There was an exclusive image dropped by Empire — What to watch for in the first visuals
Empire’s subscriber cover, courtesy of concept artist Jaime Jones, shows Aslan literally singing Narnia into being. That visual signals a film that will court spectacle without losing the inward ache of the source material. Expect production design and score to be in close conversation: costumes and sets that age like vinyl, camera moves that mimic chords.
I’m telling you this because choices like setting and sonic vocabulary change everything: character motivation, childhood wonder, and the moral weight of Aslan’s creation. Netflix and theaters are collaborators now, not just distributors, and that affects how a film like this launches into conversation and fandom.
Empire’s exclusive subscriber cover for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew is an epic sneak-peek at Aslan literally creating Narnia itself, courtesy of one of the film’s concept artist Jaime Jones.
— Empire (@empiremagazine) September 17, 2026
If you follow film at outlets like Empire, track director statements, and watch how streaming windows shift marketing, you’ll notice that Gerwig’s choice creates a healthy curiosity loop: fans of rock will show up, fans of Lewis will argue, and both will widen the conversation. The real question is whether rock’s rough tenderness will sharpen or soften Narnia’s moral spine — and which audience will claim the story as theirs?
Will Gerwig’s Narnia make rock an instrument of wonder or a spoiler for children’s magic?