Empire's November issue has hit shelves, and after a week of teasing snippets, the full set-visit feature on Greta Gerwig's “Narnia: The Magician's Nephew” is finally out. It comes with a batch of new images that haven't surfaced yet — which can be seen below.
The new stills include David McKenna's Digory curled up in bed with his ailing mother (Carey Mulligan), Strawberry the horse trotting through London, a closer look at Polly's "Smugglers Cave" attic, and Daniel Craig's Uncle Andrew scolding the kids at his front door.
The most telling change is that Digory's mother is no longer Mabel. She's now Flora, the name of C.S. Lewis's own mother, who died of cancer when he was nine. That's not a small tweak. It tells you Gerwig is leaning hard into the autobiographical grief at the center of this book, and that's the smartest possible entry point.
That grief apparently hit the young leads during casting, too. McKenna and Beatrice Campbell (Polly) both teared up when Gerwig explained Lewis' loss to them.
And yes, Meryl Streep is voicing Aslan, a choice Gerwig says came to her in a dream. She noted it felt fitting, since Lewis himself wrote about dreaming of lions when he started the series. On set, Streep would stand on a ladder and read Aslan's lines to the actors. Gerwig was also on hand when Streep recorded her vocal cameo for “Project Hail Mary,” another Amy Pascal production.
A few other tidbits:
Gerwig pitched Netflix back in 2020 on starting with ‘The Magician's Nephew’ rather than “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” telling them that the seven books together are "about the life and death of a universe."
“Narnia: The Magician's Nephew” releases worldwide February 12. The full Empire feature is in the November issue, on stands tomorrow.
After this weekend, when “Artificial” and “Behemoth!” screen at NYFF, there won’t be many Oscar contenders left unseen. In fact, by my count, there are just two: ‘Cliff Booth,’ and “Dune: Part Three.”