5 Lessons Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew Can Learn From The Rings of Power

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After the hit movie Barbie, director Greta Gerwig is taking on a new project: a fresh start for The Chronicles of Narnia series, which will be available on Netflix. Instead of following the original publishing order of the books by C.S. Lewis, Gerwig will tell the story in the order the events actually happened, starting with the first book chronologically, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew.

Netflix’s The Magician’s Nephew, a fresh start for the classic Narnia series set long before the original stories, shares a similar approach to Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. While The Rings of Power has faced criticism, it also has a dedicated fanbase eagerly awaiting its third season. The Magician’s Nephew can benefit from what worked and didn’t work in those first two seasons, helping to make the return of The Chronicles of Narnia a truly enchanting experience.

The Magician’s Nephew Must Remain True to C. S. Lewis’ Lore

The biggest criticism of The Rings of Power was that it differed from the original stories. Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books quickly noticed inconsistencies between the show and the well-known history of Middle-earth. These differences ranged from small details, like the elves’ hairstyles, to significant changes, such as how the show reorganized and shortened the timeline of the Second Age.

As a huge fan of both Tolkien and Lewis, I’ve been following the adaptations closely. It’s interesting to see how these projects evolve. With the Lord of the Rings series on Amazon, they ran into a snag because they couldn’t get the rights to The Silmarillion, which is a deep dive into the world’s history. Luckily, the upcoming Magician’s Nephew on Netflix shouldn’t have that issue – they have the rights to all of The Chronicles of Narnia! But, and this is what’s a little concerning, Greta Gerwig’s version is setting the story in the 1950s. The book actually takes place around 1900, so it’s already a pretty big change from the source material, and I hope it works!

Compelling Action Will Be Key to The Magician’s Nephew’s Success

IMDb data shows that episodes with large-scale battles, like “Udûn” from Season 1 and “Doomed to Die” from Season 2, are particularly popular with viewers. This suggests that modern fantasy fans enjoy seeing epic conflicts between magical characters and monstrous creatures, and a film adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew could benefit from including similar action. While The Chronicles of Narnia books generally feature less combat than Tolkien’s works – likely because they were written for a younger audience – The Magician’s Nephew does contain some exciting action sequences that a film could build upon.

Jadis, who later became the White Witch, once journeyed from Narnia to Earth and caused trouble using her incredible strength. The story also hints at a massive war that happened long ago in the land of Charn. The movie could start with a prologue showing this war, similar to how the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring began with the War of the Last Alliance.

An Abundance of Narnia Characters Could Ruin The Magician’s Nephew

A frequent criticism of The Rings of Power was that it tried to follow too many characters and stories at once. With Elves, Dwarves, people from Númenor, Southlanders, Harfoots, and Orcs all vying for attention, the show’s pacing sometimes suffered and it became hard to stay fully engaged. Some episodes felt rushed because they jumped between storylines too often, or they dropped certain plots entirely to concentrate on just one part of the story.

Keeping the story tightly focused will be crucial for The Magician’s Nephew, even more so than it was for The Rings of Power. Since the movie will be shorter than a TV series, it’s important to keep the main characters – young Digory Kirke, his friend Polly Plummer, and his uncle Andrew Ketterly – central to the plot, just as they are in the book.

The Magician’s Nephew Should Take Inspiration From Other Narnia Adaptations

Although not officially part of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, The Rings of Power included some familiar elements. The depiction of Durin’s Bane, for example, closely resembled the one from the original trilogy. Tolkien’s description of the Balrog in The Fellowship of the Ring was intentionally limited, simply referring to it as a shadowy, human-like figure. This allowed the artists working on The Rings of Power to draw heavily from the design created by Wētā Workshop.

While The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe didn’t reach the same level of popularity as The Lord of the Rings, it was still a financial and critical success. Therefore, the upcoming film The Magician’s Nephew should build on what worked well in the previous Narnia movie. A good starting point would be to recreate the stunning armor seen in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which, like the effects in The Lord of the Rings, was crafted by the talented team at Wētā.

Netflix Must Keep Narnia’s Most Iconic Characters Recognizable

The TV series The Rings of Power sparked disagreement among The Lord of the Rings fans. While the books and movies showed Galadriel as calm and thoughtful, the series presented her as bold and impulsive. The show explained this by setting its story thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, suggesting Galadriel hadn’t yet developed those qualities. However, this change in her character still surprised many who were familiar with the original stories.

The upcoming film, The Magician’s Nephew, will show Digory and Jadis as young characters, both of whom play important roles in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Although they’ll be different from their older selves – especially young Digory – the movie should hint at the people they’ll become and the experiences that shape them. This will help build the foundation for the future of Netflix’s The Chronicles of Narnia series.

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2026-05-24 22:12