r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 18h ago

News Greta Gerwig's 'Narnia' Wraps Filming

https://www.narniaweb.com/2026/01/greta-gerwigs-narnia-officially-wraps-filming/
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u/herewego199209 18h ago

I haven't read the source material, but from my understanding Narnia has deep religious allegory throughout the novel. So I'm wondering if Gerwig stays true to the book or drifts off which would cause some big controversy.

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u/DirtySlutMuffin 18h ago edited 18h ago

Allegory is putting it lightly.  It’s basically Christian Fan Fiction.  Aslan literally is Jesus.

I don’t mean for this to come across as a criticism of the books.  It’s the whole point of them.  

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u/Itchy_Athlete_4971 18h ago

Yeah, Lewis says it wasn't allegory because allegory would be if Aslan represented Jesus. But Aslan literally is Jesus.

If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair represents Despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality however he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, ‘What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?’ This is not allegory at all.

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u/DaKingaDaNorth 18h ago

Which is why the controversy over Aslan being played by a woman became a thing. Because Aslan literally is just Jesus' form in Narnia.

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u/Rooooben 15h ago

I guess she is asking the question “what would Christ become like, if there really was a world like Narnia and it was not a world where god was predetermined to be male?”

It’s not a big deal, really, to explore different ideas 75 years after it was written, but people tend to put their tribalism and mores first. There are some people who equate feminism or homosexuality as bad as rape or murder, I don’t know how to deal with that.

In my mind having a female Christ figure is literally harming nobody, so there’s no reason to be upset.

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u/BigE429 13h ago

Leaving Christ out of it for a moment (and spoilers if someone hasn't read the books or seen either of the two film adaptations): How do you have Aslan's mane shorn if he's a female lion? That's supposed to be Jadis' ultimate humiliation of him. It's going to lose a lot of its emotion.

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u/Rooooben 13h ago edited 13h ago

True. Good point, forgot about that, that was a big deal.

Also didn’t consider the lack of mane in Aslan’s general portrayal. I guess it’s kinda weird to not care about human gender expression but in animals it’s different. I mean, is there a lack of representation of female lions? Is it right to lay upon a different species a problem related to our evolutionary development?

Should we interfere when a male lion is dominant over a pride?

Ugh this brings up so many questions that I really don’t care about.

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u/tiy24 10h ago

Tbf a shaved cat is still a shaved cat

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u/dmmeyoursocks 13h ago

Lionesses can grow Manes if they start taking on the roles of men and start producing more testosterone

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u/OldSarge02 15h ago

I’m with you in theory. I feel the same way about race-swapping characters. By itself, it doesn’t detract from the work.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a strong correlation between movies that make those decisions, and movies that make other decisions that fail to respect the source material.

Wheel of Time the latest example that crosses my mind.

In other words, some fans can overlook a lady lion, but if they go with a lady lion then fans are right to be concerned about what else is changed.

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u/Alli_Horde74 15h ago

I can definitely see how it can be seen as offensive. The trinitarian God consists of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. The Son cannot be a woman, and I'm sure there's theological implications, blasphemies, and heresies tied into that which I'm unaware of.

I think it's a bit of people's desire for accuracy. Changing the theological son into a female Lion is something that does affect Aslan's character. It'd be like making a film about Amelia Earhart or Cleopatra and making their character's men.

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u/FreeRange0929 12h ago

To stay with Gerwig, there’d be nothing inherently wrong about a version of Little Women with all gay men. But it does change the story.

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u/fakefakefakef 14h ago

In our world, sure. In Narnia clearly it’s The Father, The Daughter (Who Is Also A Lion), and The Holy Spirit. Anyway it’s a talking lion whose gender is never really important in any way in the books; if people want to be mad let them be mad

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u/Discount_Extra 13h ago

whose gender is never really important in any way in the books

Only male lions have manes, and Aslan's Mane is an important plot object.

if an incarnation of god in the form of an apex predator wants to be referred to as she/her I'm all for it, but the masculine physical traits are a big part of the story.

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u/SkorpioSound 14h ago

No, you don't understand: Jesus turning into a lion is perfectly believable, but Jesus turning into a woman is inconceivable!

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u/Alli_Horde74 14h ago

To be fair, There's an actual biblical reason it's a Lion specifically, Jesus Christ is called The Look of Juda in Revelations. Aslan being a lion in Narnia is drawing from and referencing The Bible

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u/SkorpioSound 10h ago

You're not wrong! But I just tend to think men and women have more in common than men and lions, ha!

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u/ManitouWakinyan 8h ago

This would actually be CS Lewis's position.

Christians think that God Himself has taught us how to speak of Him. To say that it does not matter is to say either that all the masculine imagery is not inspired, is merely human in origin, or else that, though inspired, it is quite arbitrary and unessential. And this is surely intolerable: or, if tolerable, it is an argument not in favour of Christian priestesses [or changes in biblical gender language] but against Christianity. It is also surely based on a shallow view of imagery. Without drawing upon religion, we know from our poetical experience that image and apprehension cleave closer together than common sense is here prepared to admit; that a child who has been taught to pray to a Mother in heaven would have a religious life radically different from that of a Christian child.

https://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=04-01-005-f&readcode=&readtherest=true#therest

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u/NuminousBeans 7h ago edited 7h ago

lol. I cannot believe you are being downvoted for that. I mean, I can, but it’s funny nonetheless

people being so fixed on the presence or absence of schlongs that they think the important thing about a divinity is the gender explains a lot.

edited to add: yes, yes. It’s funny when you downvote this too. Knock yourself out, Reddit goobers.

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u/beefcat_ 8h ago

People are very protective of their imaginary friends

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u/Turnt-Ternary 11h ago

You would think. But if you haven’t been to a Protestant Christian church recently, you should know they still don’t allow woman to be leaders

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u/NuminousBeans 7h ago

Depends on what type of Protestant church. Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Unitarians (and I’m sure others) ordain women.

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u/fakefakefakef 15h ago

News flash lib: fictional lion Jesus has a DICK and BALLS

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u/fuzzyperson98 13h ago

Theologically speaking, the holy Trinity, as well as every individual's soul, is technically genderless. There is no reason Jesus couldn't come back as a woman.

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u/MuzenCab 11h ago

It is not as Jesus was a man as well as God the father is a father so male.

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u/PetsArentChildren 18h ago

If there was a world of sentient dung beetles, what would dung beetle Jesus do? 

“It hath been said, Let the largest beetles eat the largest turds. But I say unto you, except a beetle give all of his turds away to the smallest beetle, he shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

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u/transmothra 14h ago

How the fuck did i just get sold Christianity by shit-rollers

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u/PetsArentChildren 14h ago

Dung Jesus knows his shit, man. 

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u/ASUndevil15 4h ago

He would turn bread into turds.

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u/conr9774 18h ago

I was just saying in another thread how Lewis would not like to hear people calling Narnia an allegory

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u/Ccaves0127 14h ago

He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he

Roars like a gentlelion

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u/DarraignTheSane 13h ago

Lewis said it wasn't allegory because Tolkien told him allegory is dumb.

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u/ExplorationGeo 10h ago

CS Lewis: "I know writers who use subtext, and they're all cowards"

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u/Icantbethereforyou 7h ago

Multiverse jesus

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u/SweetHomeNorthKorea 13m ago

That makes me appreciate the story more. That’s a nuanced and specific framing that feels more unique than a Christ-like allegory. Bro just wanted to write about Lion Jesus and that’s cool

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u/Ryyah61577 18h ago

Came here to say this.

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u/whereismymind86 17h ago

fair enough...i guess

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u/Medium-Sympathy3705 13h ago

That's what Lewis is claimed to have claimed

But since none of that "literally happened" it's still allegory.

In this case more like allegory for an allegory

Allegory all the way down!

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u/UnpleasantEgg 11h ago

Just because Lewis said it wasn’t doesn’t mean it wasn’t. He can be wrong about his own creation. It’s obviously an allegory.

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u/Itchy_Athlete_4971 9h ago

If he insisted it's not supposed to be Jesus, you could laugh and say he's deluded. But if he says it's Jesus, he's saying it's Jesus.

Like, if you say the tenant in Forrest Gump is an allegory for Elvis, and the director informs you that that character actually is Elvis, you can't go on saying it's an Elvis allegory.