The ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ film that was never released

Written by CS Lewis“The Chronicles of Narnia” appeared on shelves in the mid-1950s, presenting the story of Lúcia, Edmundo, Susana and Pedro, children who end up discovering a magical portal in a wardrobe and are transported to a place inhabited by talking animals and mythological creatures, which is known as Narnia.

There, the quartet will be guided by the Lion Aslan and will experience intense adventures as they try to help protect Narnia from the evil of the White Witch, who took the reins of Narnia by force, at the same time as they want to find a way back home.

To develop the twists and turns of this premise, seven books were needed — three of which were adapted for theaters around five decades later by Disney: “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (2005), “Prince Caspian” (2008) and “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” (2010), where the four main characters were played by the actors Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Anna Popplewell and William Moseley. The franchise could have been bigger if the sequels to the 2005 plot hadn’t had such low box office results, after all, with lower-than-expected revenue, Disney ended up abandoning the project.

However, the rights to adapt the plots did not remain under the control of Casa do Mickey for long. In 2013, the CS Lewis Company reached an agreement with the production company The Mark Gordon Company to develop a new adaptation, resulting in the planning of a film that was never released in theaters.

What is the ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ film that has not been released?

The title that could leave the pages and go to the big screen is “The Chronicles of Narnia – The Silver Chair”, the fourth edition of the saga. In the story, set in the Fururo, the Pevensie brothers do not appear since Eustáquio Mísero, the cousin of the Pevensie brothers, and his friend Jill Pope, become the protagonists when they are summoned by Aslan to solve a mystery: the disappearance of Prince Rilian, the only son and heir of King Caspian X — who is now very old.

In 2015 it was revealed that the script for the film had already been written by David Magee (Life of Pi, Finding Neverland). The revelation was made by the screenwriter and filmmaker himself on X (formerly Twitter), where he said that he had worked on the project for more than a year, as reported by the ScreenRant portal.

In 2016, it was revealed that TriStar Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures, would be responsible for the production and distribution of the title on the big screen. At the time, Mark Gordonwho was defined as the producer of the feature film, stated that the adaptation would start a new franchise.

“Everything is going to be a brand new franchise. Everything original. All original characters, different directors and a brand new team that this is coming from,” he told Collider.

In 2017, the director of films such as “Jumanji”, “Jurassic Park III”, “The Wolfman” and “Captain America: The First Avenger”, Joe Johnstonwas confirmed as the person responsible for directing “The Silver Chair”, the same year in which rumors that Millie Bobby Brown, from Stranger Things, could be in the cast also gained strength.

Shortly after, Sony released a report about the next film, where recording was expected to begin: November 2017, where the film would shoot for five months in New Zealand. In the same document, the synopsis of the film also appeared, as revealed by the Cinema com Rapadura portal:

“Sixty years after the events of ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,’ King Caspian is now an old man in poor health. More than ten years earlier, his wife was killed by a serpent and his only son, Rilian, disappeared without a trace, leaving his kingdom without an heir. Many of Narnia’s greatest heroes set out in search of the prince, but never returned. Aslan then asks for help from students Jill and Eustace to find the lost prince. They will also count on the help of the brewer Puddleglum to guide them on their journey. Facing unimaginable dangers in deep, dark caverns, the group will encounter an evil more deadly than they could have imagined.”

Although many plans were made, no news has been revealed about the feature film since then, which may indicate that the project ended up being shelved.

A new opportunity

The idea gains strength because, in 2018, Netflix acquired the rights to adapt the work, and in 2023 it began to publicize plans for the franchise to be revived.

This is because, Greta Gerwigdirector of “Barbie”, was chosen to lead the project and Louis Partridge, actor who brought the character to life Lord Tewksbury in the “Enola Holmes” franchise, was confirmed in the cast. This month, it was revealed that the film will debut in theaters on November 26th, and then in the platform’s catalog on December 25th.