Greta Gerwig’s Narnia trailer pairs Daniel Craig with an unexpected voice

Netflix gave audiences their first look at the birth of Narnia on Tuesday afternoon, releasing the debut teaser trailer for Greta Gerwig’s fantasy adaptation Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew at 2:00 p.m. ET.

The streaming platform accompanied the first footage with the tagline “A Universe Begins.” on X, confirming a major push for the director’s first feature project since the box-office success of Barbie in 2023.

A first look at the origins of Narnia

Based on C.S. Lewis’s 1955 novel, the film chronicles how the magical realm was originally created. The footage introduces David McKenna as Digory Kirke and Beatrice Campbell as Polly Plummer, two children drawn into alternate dimensions through magical rings, alongside Daniel Craig as the eccentric Uncle Andrew Ketterley.

The teaser also reveals Emma Mackey as Jadis (the White Witch) and features trailer dialogue asking, “Have you ever seen a world born?” In a key reveal, Meryl Streep provides the voice of Aslan, the great lion whose song breathes life into Narnia.

In an unexpected creative choice noted by Variety and other outlets, the fantasy footage is set to Led Zeppelin’s rock anthem “Stairway to Heaven”. Gerwig personally met with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to clear the rights to use the classic track for the project.

Greta Gerwig on singing Narnia to life

Prior to the online release on Tuesday, October 13, Gerwig appeared with Stephen Colbert at an IMAX sneak preview event at AMC Lincoln Square in New York City to present early footage to an audience.

“I was a child when I first read The Magician’s Nephew, and I fell in love with the gorgeously improbable but completely brilliant concept of a cosmic lion singing the world of Narnia to life,” Gerwig told Nerdtropolis and Netflix Tudum. Speaking to the Associated Press about the scale of the world-building, she noted, “Movies this size are usually about destruction.”

The project stems from a multi-year rights agreement signed in 2018 between Netflix and the C.S. Lewis Company. On October 12, Netflix began teasing the launch by unveiling a poster showing a celestial silhouette of Aslan and the children riding the winged horse Fledge.

Theatrical release schedule and streaming plans

While Netflix is financing the production, Gerwig made it clear from the beginning that the epic needed a cinema screen. “I told Ted I only know how to make movies for the big screen,” Gerwig told the Associated Press, recalling Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos’s response: “Make the movie for the biggest screen you can imagine.”

To accommodate that vision, the release was shifted from an earlier late-2026 target to an expansive worldwide theatrical rollout. According to reporting from People and Entertainment Weekly, the film will debut with exclusive IMAX sneak previews on February 10, 2027.

A wide theatrical release follows on February 12, 2027, distributed domestically in North America by Netflix and internationally by Sony Pictures. Audiences will then be able to stream the movie at home when it arrives globally on Netflix on April 2, 2027.

What we know and what comes next

While the core roles are now public, Netflix has not officially confirmed the specific characters played by ensemble cast members Ciarán Hinds and Denise Gough.

Netflix has also not announced the final theater count for the February 2027 cinema release, nor has the studio revealed when production will begin on subsequent Narnia franchise adaptations under Gerwig’s multi-picture contract.