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The Chronicles Of Narnia Reportedly Targeting A December 2026 Release

Director Greta Gerwig's adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia at Netflix is reportedly targeting a December 2026 release date.

The last we heard about the new Netflix big-screen adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia, the streamer wanted the production to kick off sometime this year. It looks like that didn't happen because we cannot imagine a world where Netflix didn't release the casting to the rest of the world for everyone to see. Nothing was set in stone, but it appears that is still the case if a report coming out of Bloomberg is anything to go by. They are calling it a "scoop," so the word "reportedly" is going to be doing some heavy lifting, but they are saying, "Netflix is targeting a December 2026 release for The Chronicles of Narnia movie from Greta Gerwig."

It's not just the release date that everyone is talking about. Netflix has been releasing a couple of movies in theaters, and it sounds like they want Gerwig's movies to get theatrical releases in IMAX as well. Bloomberg reports, "Negotiations for a theatrical release with Imax and Gerwig continue. Everyone wants to do it. Netflix is still figuring out the best way to explain the move to other filmmakers; it doesn't want this to be seen as a precedent. But Imax is only for a certain kind of film. Most Netflix movies would never get an Imax release." Basically, they don't want other directors to see this and come in demanding that their movies are also worthy of big theatrical releases. However, Bloomberg says that the streaming service "still has no interest in theaters." You can present plenty of reasons to argue for and against theatrical releases at this point. How much merit you put into those arguments depends on how much you value the theatrical experience as a whole.

The Chronicles of Narnia And Adapting "Foundational" Pieces Of Media

Several book series are considered "foundational" when it comes to genres, and The Chronicles of Narnia is absolutely one of those book series. Between 2005 and 2010, three of the books were adapted to the big screen with pretty decent results. The books aren't massive the way that Dune is, so there wasn't a need to cut too much out, and they all have pretty definitive beginnings, middles, and endings, making them pretty ripe for adaptation. However, like all media involving children, the passage of time, delays, and dwindling box office returns got in the way of future movies.

Netflix acquired the rights to make more films and television series based on the books back in 2018, but it took quite a while for the streaming service to get anything off of the ground. Following the massive success of Barbie, it was pretty clear that director Greta Gerwig could do anything she wanted, but she signed on to do The Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix. The last we heard about the production, they wanted to start production in 2024, but unless that happened while no one was looking, that didn't quite happen. We also don't know how Netflix is planning to adapt these books either. Much like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, when you're doing a franchise where your cast is children, you are on a very strict timetable, or things start to get weird regarding aging. See all the jokes about the final season of Stranger Things.

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