I have to agree with the rationale in today’s Guardian (UK). Walden’s decision to go with The Magician’s Nephew as the next Narnia movie makes perfect sense when you consider most of the audience doesn’t really care about the franchise past The Lion, the Witch,and the Wardrobe.
As a fan of the books, I had hoped the movie-makers would continue to produce the films in the order the books were published. But Walden has more to consider than my hopes or expectations, and those of the fan base. Stuart Heritage explains it well in the Guardian article.
As the producers are starting to realise, the main problem with adapting the whole Narnia series is that most casual audiences only really care about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. After that, they start to lose interest. And by the time they get to the book about the monkey that plays a trick on a donkey, they couldn’t really give a stuff. Perhaps by making The Magician’s Nephew – essentially The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: How It All Began – Walden can breathe some life back into the series. Maybe even enough to go back and appease hardcore Narnia fans by making that horse-based Moses allegory they’re all so desperate for.
Heritage wonders if certain other franchises would have benefited by making their stories “out of order” or skipping certain episode altogether.
What fans need to come to terms with is not what is important to you as an individual, but to the franchise as a whole. Would you rather see The Silver Chair made next and flop—virtually assuring the death of the series—or The Magician’s Nephew—which has a much more reasonable chance for success?
March 25th, 2011 at 11:34 am
I understand. I also mourn a bit. Because Will Poulter (imho) did an excellent job playing Eustace (especially the tranformation at the end) and will probably never get the chance to reprise his role in Silver Chair, or Last Battle, because he will be too old if it they are ever released. I am a fan of keeping the same actor when he pulls it off. And Will did.
March 25th, 2011 at 10:14 pm
You express the same misgivings about this that many fans have been expressing on the fan sites and on Facebook. But I honestly don’t see this as a problem.
First of all, the franchise has stretched the ages of the characters before without hurting the stories. The Pevensies aged more between trips to Narnia because the films were made more than one year apart. (In the books, the time between The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian was one year; same for Dawn Treader.)
Furthermore, Ben Barnes did a commendable job portraying a teenager in Prince Caspian even though he was considerably older. Will Poulter also looks younger than he actually is, and should be able to pull this off even if a few years pass before SC is made.
April 3rd, 2011 at 2:28 pm
In my opinion I would like to see Magicians Nephew(Despite the fact that logically Sliver Chair would be next in the Chronicles, but I am not picky about what they come out with though this would be Narnia 1 not Narnia 4 I am just thinking in order of the Chronicles) besides I also do not understand why Walden Media never bothered with doing The Chronicles in the order in which C.S. Lewis wanted the order of the books to be in. Besides why do them in the publication order? That makes no bloody sense in my mind. Besides Harry Potter was done in order of the book Besides if you think about it Peter Jackson wanted to do The Hobbit first as a film and then do Lord of the Rings Back back to back. But when I think about it, Then that means the Final movie won’t have come out until LWW came out that would definitely would have been a challenge to Peter Jackson. Thankfully that never happened, even though I would have loved seeing The Hobbit being made first, but thats alright So thats the way I look at it.
April 4th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Marshall,
1. Making the movies in publication order makes the same sense as reading the books in publication order. Most Narnia experts who express an opinion on the matter agree the books should be read in the publication order the first time. And despite what HarperCollins may claim, Lewis never expressed a preference for renumbering the books the way they are sold today. He did write a letter responding to an inquiry about someone who was going to re-read the books, saying that it might be good to read the books chronologically the second time. Here is a link to a great article about the subject: http://hope.edu/academic/english/schakel/narniaorder.html
2. The Harry Potter movies were made in chronological order because that is the order in which they were written, so that is a bad example.
3. Peter Jackson originally wanted to do one Hobbit movie and two Lord of the Rings movies. I’m glad he didn’t get his wish. The movies would have had to rush through too much material.