Greta Gerwig's Narnia Trailer Uses Stairway to Heaven, and Meryl Streep Is the Voice of Aslan

Photo: spurekar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Netflix released the first trailer for Narnia: The Magician's Nephew on October 13 and the thing everyone noticed first was the music. It is Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, a song that almost never gets licensed for film, playing over a stairway that quite literally leads to another world. Greta Gerwig showed it at a New York event with Stephen Colbert moderating, which tells you how big a deal Netflix thinks this is.

The book is the origin story of Narnia, the one where Digory and Polly find the rings and watch Aslan sing the world into being. Gerwig cast two newcomers, David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell, as the kids, and surrounded them with Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Ciaran Hinds, Daniel Craig and Denise Gough. Meryl Streep voices Aslan, which is the casting choice that will generate a thousand arguments and is also, having heard two lines, clearly going to work.

Photo: Frank Sun, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The release is split in a way that only Netflix would do. IMAX-only screenings begin February 10, 2027, the wide theatrical run starts February 12, and the film lands on Netflix on April 2. Columbia handles it internationally. Two months of exclusive cinema time is more than Netflix has given anything before, and it is a sign they want this to be an event rather than a Friday night scroll.

Photo: Peter Kudlacz, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I was sceptical of Gerwig doing Narnia and the trailer has mostly cured me. It looks handmade and strange in the right ways. Does Stairway to Heaven over a children's fantasy work for you, or is it too much?