I don’t have it in me to articulate this twice so I’m just gonna copy my comment on the NarniaWeb news article here. I’ve been waiting to see confirmation on whether it was an April Fools thing before I let myself start thinking about it, but, well. Here we are. I want to hold out hope that there’s something getting lost in translation here or that the offer will not be extended once they see the backlash or something, but for now, my immediate reaction.
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I… I don’t even know what to think. I’ve been cautiously optimistic about Netflix Narnia, I’ve defended Greta when people have taken her completely and unfairly out of context, I’ve been looking forward to seeing Magician’s Nephew finally get adapted; things have generally looked okay, though of course I was always cautious.
But this? I mean, it’s SO insane that I have a hard time believing that it will go through (though I know I shouldn’t be surprised), and I would like to believe that enough backlash could halt them in their tracks, or that Douglas Gresham or someone else from the estate could put their foot down, or that there’s just something we’re not understanding about all this to begin with. But, taking a step back from that optimism that I so need and just looking at it on its face… holy cow. HOLY COW.
It does not get more blasphemous than this, really. Even if you’re not Christian, this is still outrageous and completely against the spirit of Narnia. I can’t fathom them even considering such a thing and there’s a horrible growing dread in my stomach thinking about them actually doing it. I can only imagine Jack is absolutely rolling in his grave.
I’m truly at a loss for words for how horrifying and offensive this is. This is NOT a piece of media that you can reinvent however you want. When you’re taking on an openly Christian work with a large Christian fanbase, you treat that with respect. Aslan is not just a leader, just any authority figure, just any lion — Aslan is THE Lion (even my phone knows it, because it autocorrected to a capitalized Lion when I wrote it the first time!). He’s not just an allegory, he’s literally supposed to be the ACTUAL Jesus, in-universe. If the dialogue in VotDT about coming to know him by another name in our world wasn’t clear enough, Last Battle EXTREMELY BLATANTLY describes him no longer appearing like a lion and switches to a capitalized He. This isn’t just disrespecting a figure that people ascribe Christlike attributes and themes to, this is disrespecting Jack’s representation of the real, actual Savior. You do NOT play with that lightly.
Aslan is male. Christ is male. I’ve seen people make arguments that God could be anything and so they choose to call Him a she or a they just to defy the idea of Him being a man, but He came down to this world as a man and calls Himself male. There’s literally nothing further to discuss. He has the final word on what He is, and as far as I’m concerned, that final word was had long before human life was even on this earth. We don’t get to decide what we want Him to be. Even if you’re not Christian and therefore don’t believe that you’re disrespecting a real God, it’s nevertheless disrespectful to believers everywhere and that alone should give one pause before committing to something like this.
I’m just blown out of the water by this. An absolute slap in the face and then some to fans of Narnia. This would be literally and metaphorically shaving Aslan’s mane before he even hits the table.



















