Meryl Streep to voice Aslan in first trailer for Greta Gerwig's 'Narnia: The Magician's Nephew'

Meryl Streep is set to voice Aslan in Greta Gerwig's Narnia film. Daniel Craig is among the cast as an eccentric uncle. And Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' — one of rock's most jealously guarded songs — scores the trailer. The first trailer for 'Narnia: The Magician's Nephew' arrived Tuesday, and it announced something beyond a new fantasy film: Netflix's first wide theatrical release, headed to IMAX screens worldwide on February 12, 2027.

The preview opens in 1950s London — a deliberate shift from the 1900 setting of C.S. Lewis's source novel — and follows 12-year-old Digory Kirke and his friend Polly Plummer as they stumble into magic rings, encounter an uncle figure, and cross into the Wood between the Worlds. From there the trailer moves through talking animals, a flying horse, and Emma Mackey as Jadis, the future White Witch, before Streep's Aslan roars Narnia itself into being amid cosmic visuals.

Gerwig unveiled the trailer at a sneak preview screening in IMAX at AMC Lincoln Center in New York on Tuesday morning, where she took questions from Stephen Colbert. The event, attended by film critics and reporters including Mashable's Kristy Puchko, also included behind-the-scenes footage.

I would not be who I am without these books.— Greta Gerwig, director

Gerwig described the Narnia books as formative — read to her before she could read on her own, then reread repeatedly once she could. To prepare for the adaptation, she reread all seven Narnia novels alongside Lewis's other works and books by authors he loved, and traveled to Oxford, Cambridge, and Belfast, according to Mashable, to understand his interior life. She also, she told the audience, ate a lot of Turkish Delight in prep.

The choice of 'Stairway to Heaven' was not accidental and was not easy. Led Zeppelin rarely licenses the song, but Gerwig personally reached out to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

It's an epic song. It's about a spiritual journey…false idols and the wrong roads you can go down.— Greta Gerwig, director

Page and Plant agreed, according to Gerwig, because they share her reverence for Lewis's work.

They too love C.S. Lewis and they have a reverence for his work.— Greta Gerwig, director

The cast assembled around newcomers David McKenna (Digory) and Beatrice Campbell (Polly) is formidable: Craig, Mackey, Streep, Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Denise Gough, and Susan Wokoma. McKenna recently played Piggy in Netflix's 'Lord of the Flies' miniseries; Campbell played young Lisle in Wes Anderson's 'The Phoenician Scheme,' according to Variety.

'The Magician's Nephew' is the sixth novel published in Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia but the first in the series' internal chronology. It tells the origin story of Narnia itself, reaching back 1,000 years, and is set roughly 40 years before 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.' Gerwig's decision to move the timeline from 1900 to the 1950s could create continuity questions if Netflix continues into subsequent books — 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' hinges on the Pevensie children evacuating London during the World War II Blitz, according to Variety.

The theatrical strategy is itself a landmark for Netflix. The film will open in IMAX and other theaters worldwide on February 12, 2027, with IMAX sneak previews beginning February 10, before arriving on the streaming service on April 2, 2027 — a 50-day theatrical window, according to Mashable.

Gerwig told Colbert that the scale of the production required hundreds of artists working across sets, costumes, music, and performance. To foster that collaboration, she borrowed an idea from artist William Kentridge — a silkscreen piece called 'A Safe Space For Stupidity' — and hung a similar sign above her office, which she said encouraged collaborators to come forward with ideas, according to Variety.

Why it matters — Netflix is staking its first-ever wide theatrical release on a beloved literary franchise, with a release strategy and creative pedigree that will test whether a streaming giant can compete at the cinema on the biggest possible scale.

Reported by variety.com, ew.com, hollywoodreporter.com, mashable.com, netflix.com