Greta Gerwig is reportedly being eyed to direct two installments of Netflix's Chronicles of Narnia films after the streamer secured the rights to C.S. Lewis' novels in 2018.

The Chronicles of Narnia is the name given to Lewis' classic seven-novel run through his fantasy world, something he made at the same time his buddy J.R.R. Tolkien was conjugating elvish verbs for his Middle-Earth novels. The works of Lewis had been purchased by Netflix with an eye toward their mega fantasy franchise.

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What's on Netflix has released a new report that not only is Netflix starting to move forward on their acquisition, but that they’ve been eyeing Gerwig, the Lady Bird and Little Women director who’s recently been hard at work on her Barbie movie based on the Mattel doll for Warner Bros. Netflix reaching out to Gerwig to direct the first two entries in their new Chronicles of Narnia franchise, with no word on if the films would be adaptations of one book or more than one. The outlet also notes that Netflix is "likely" to have Gerwig helm the two Chronicles of Narnia films, suggesting talks with the filmmaker will go well.

Margot Robbie Barbie Greta Gerwig

Netflix first announced their acquisition of the Narnia rights back in 2018. Shortly after, word dropped that Matthew Alrich, one of the writers behind Coco and Lightyear, will be their creative architect, overseeing the direction the franchise is going to go. This is similar to how Disney let Andrew Adamson of Shrek and Shrek 2 oversee The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.

The Chronicles of Narnia has seen two major attempts at adaptation to date: the charmingly hokey BBC take from the late 1980s and the Disney films from the early 2000s that used the Lord of the Rings brain trust at Weta to help them come to life. Gerwig, who moved on to directing from her early career as an actor, has been critically acclaimed for everything she’s touched. Her most recently finished movie (before Barbie) was another adaptation of a novel, that of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, the perennial classic. The film showed she has the chops for smart adaptation, something the Narnia books will need.

Netflix getting in on the fantasy game makes sense since Disney currently has Star Wars and Willow and Warner Bros. Discovery still has the rights to Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and the Lord of the Rings franchises. There’s not a ton left to take on after that, but Lewis' beloved novels have that same global reach and the pop culture cache to make them a sound investment for anyone with an eye toward their blockbuster fantasy adventure series.

Netflix's The Chronicles of Narnia is in development.

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Source: What's on Netflix