How Greta Gerwig’s Narnia Film Was Introduced With a Poster and Trailer

Netflix put the first public images of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew online in two steps this week. The first poster appeared on social media on 12 October 2026. The first trailer followed on 13 October and was expected at 2 p.m. ET.

The film adapts the C.S. Lewis novel and is Gerwig’s project after Barbie, which was a studio release. For this film she moved to Netflix. The announcements also set out a release plan that begins in cinemas and moves to streaming seven weeks later, a change from the earlier schedule.

What the first poster shows

The poster fills most of the frame with a large silhouette of Aslan in profile, with the cosmos appearing inside the lion. The image refers to the book’s scene in which Aslan sings Narnia into existence.

At the centre, Digory and Polly ride Fledge, the winged horse, through a burst of prismatic light. In the book, the horse began as a London cab horse named Strawberry.

The tagline reads “A Universe Begins.” The credit line says “A Film by Greta Gerwig,” and the poster carries the Narnia wordmark, the February theatrical date and a note about IMAX.

ComicBookMovie.com describes the artwork slightly differently, with stars arranged in the shape of Aslan in the background. Netflix also issued widescreen title-page art, which shows Aslan on the right and a marbled blue, lilac and cream nebula on the left.

Release dates
Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew opens in theatres on 12 February 2027, with IMAX sneak previews on 10 February, and streams on Netflix from 2 April 2027, according to What’s on Netflix.

The first trailer and its music

The first trailer arrived on 13 October and is scored with Led Zeppelin music, The Film Stage reports. The poster had appeared the day before.

The film’s cinematographer is Seamus McGarvey, whose credits include Die My Love, Nocturnal Animals and Anna Karenina.

The trailer is the first trailer released for the film. Before it, the public had seen the poster and the material Empire published in September, when the magazine released the first look and confirmed Meryl Streep as Aslan.

Empire also published a subscriber cover by concept artist Jaime Jones showing Aslan creating Narnia. First-look images of Daniel Craig and Emma Mackey followed the next day, according to What’s on Netflix.

What Gerwig has said about the story

Gerwig says she first read the book as a child and fell for the idea of a lion singing the world of Narnia to life. She calls the chance to bring it to the screen “the honor of a lifetime,” The Film Stage reports.

She describes the story as a universe built from music, a subject she says has always been close to her heart. She also says Lewis’s books taught her to believe in magic and hidden worlds.

As reported by ComicBookMovie.com, Gerwig said David Bowie inspired Aslan’s look and the film’s overall feel. In this version Aslan has multicoloured eyes and a red-striped face.

She named other musicians as influences, including Paul McCartney, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. She described Narnia as “literally a world made out of music.”

What’s on Netflix reports that she called her take a rock opera, with nods to Bowie and The Who. It adds that the film moves the story from the book’s 1900 setting to the 1950s.

Of Uncle Andrew, What’s on Netflix quotes her as calling him the “stupidest magician in the world who actually made magic.”

The cast and the casting of Aslan

The cast includes David McKenna, Beatrice Campbell, Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds, Daniel Craig and Meryl Streep, according to The Film Stage.

What’s on Netflix adds Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Denise Gough and Susan Wokoma. It lists Craig as Uncle Andrew Ketterley, a scheming magician, and Mackey as Jadis, a sorceress, in a glam-rock-inspired costume. Streep will voice Aslan.

ComicBookMovie.com reports Gerwig’s explanation of the Streep casting. She wanted someone “profound but not pretentious,” with gravitas but without morose self-seriousness.

Gerwig said she wanted someone older than 70, for the wisdom of experience, while keeping a childlike sense of wonder.

Netflix put the first public images of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew online in two steps this week.

How the release plan changed

ComicBookMovie.com says the original plan was an IMAX run over Thanksgiving, followed by a Netflix debut on Christmas Day. The film now opens in theatres on 12 February 2027.

IMAX-only sneak previews begin on 10 February 2027. Netflix streaming is set for 2 April 2027, according to What’s on Netflix, The Film Stage and ComicBookMovie.com.

What’s on Netflix says the film was moved out of 2026 in exchange for a proper theatrical run. It describes a seven-week, 49-day exclusive window and calls it the longest in Netflix history, at least for an English-language film of this scale.

The Film Stage describes the window as longer than some legacy studios give films before they move to streaming.

What’s on Netflix also reports that Sony Pictures Entertainment will distribute the film outside North America.

The book behind the film

Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew is the sixth book in the Narnia series. ComicBookMovie.com notes that it is a prequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

In the story, Digory and Polly are the first to find the Wood between the Worlds, which leads to Narnia.

What’s on Netflix contrasts the film’s cosmic look with the earthier Walden Media and Disney trilogy of earlier Narnia films.

The poster carries the billing “A Film by Greta Gerwig,” and Netflix has presented the project under her name in the first materials.

Photo: Tabercil · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons