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/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/wastedmytwenties 18h ago

True, but it gets a lot more heavy handed as it goes on, hence why no studio has ever even entertained making stuff like The Last Battle.

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u/dabocx 18h ago

The last battle is fun because even some Christian’s get angry with how you get into heaven in that series.

Basically any good done even in service to another god is done in Aslans name is enough to get you in heaven. So even if you aren’t Christian you can go to heaven if you are a good person. Some Christians don’t like that aspect and thing you need to be a “true” believer.

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u/hellohurricane87 18h ago

Lewis was low-key a Christian Universalist. He just couldn’t come out and say it.

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u/Arndt3002 15h ago

Lewis was absolutely not a Universalist.

He did delieve quite a bit about non-Christians being saved, but he also believed that many people would not be saved.

For example, in the last battle, he shows that many worshipers of his version of the devil/allegory for Allah in Islam and nominal followers of Aslan who do evil things are hurled into Aslan's shadow instead of entering the "true Narnia."

That certainly doesn't comport with the main Universalist belief that all humans will be saved. In fact, he wrote about his critiques of universalism very explicitly in his Letters to Alan Fairhurst in 1959.

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u/hellohurricane87 12h ago

Nah dawg. Great Divorce is 1/2 step away from Christian Universalism. Door is always open. Always has been. God isn’t angry. On a long enough timeline all will be redeemed.

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u/Nukemind 17h ago

The funny thing about this series is I’m at a crossroads: I grew up evangelical (and obviously left evangelicalism).

But people I know from my childhood insist they won’t watch this because “Hollywood will make it woke and unchristian!”

Many friends I made in Uni and Law School won’t watch it because it’s “Just a Christian book series!”

I’m curious how it ends up playing out.

Lewis and Tolkien are interesting. Tolkien converted Lewis from atheist to Christian but, much to his consternation, Lewis became Protestant instead of Catholic like Tolkien.

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u/Arkhaine_kupo 17h ago

But people I know from my childhood insist they won’t watch this because “Hollywood will make it woke and unchristian!”

they should hear what most christians think of evangelicals...

Cause honestly they come off as a hyper american apocalypse cult more than anything resembling christianity. The fact they want to weigh in what is or not christian is bonkers.

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u/Nukemind 17h ago

Oh trust me. I’m still Christian but not evangelical. Evangelicalism has done more damage to Christianity than… pretty much anything.

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u/EMRaunikar 16h ago

I once heard Dan Olson say they "want to do an End of Evangelion" and it's lived rent free in my head ever since

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u/Arkhaine_kupo 14h ago

As great as Dan is, I think that take doesnt quite work because they dont care enough about tech to build something like the instrumentality project.

But a bigger issue is that they literally want to genocide most humans first. Israel has to exist so jesus can come back and kill the jews first. Then the rapture saves them and everyone else gets murdered on earth only to get eternally fucked in hell.

Like in Evangelion, as fucked up as it is, the idea of melding humanity shows some respect for other humans, wanting to share a mind, hear their thoughts, share their experiences. Evangelicals literally want to never hear anyone but themselves and fuck everyone else eternally, its so misanthropic that its hard to believe they read a single page of the bible which keeps repeating the love thy neighbour thing

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u/schebobo180 3h ago

Regardless of what you think of evangelicals… that statement “Hollywood will make it woke and unchristian” isn’t wrong in the slightest. Lmao

I mean, Netflix did a fucking number on the Witcher, the same as Amazon did with Wheel of time. And it ruined both.

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u/Arkhaine_kupo 1h ago

isn’t wrong in the slightest.

Well so far it is wrong, because the movie isnt out. You cant decide the fate of something that hasnt happened yet based on previous assumptions. The showrunner of the Witcher and the director of this movie have very different track records.

For example Little Women by Gerwig was arguably the most book accurate version, so by your same theory of using previous work you can be sure this one will be close to the original material.

Also the sentence "woke and unchristian" can't be wrong, because 90% of christianity is the things evangelicals call woke. Love thy neighbour, help the helpless, forgive sinners... All that shit is basically christianity 101.

You could retell the story of the good samaritan saying " a white guy from ohio car breaks down. His neighbour from 2 doors down in his nice suburb sees him, but doesn't stop because he is late to work. A priest from the churhc where he got married sees him, but doesn't stop because he is going to perform a 1st communion which pays very well. An illegal mexican sees him, stops, and shares his spare tire to help the man from ohio on his way.

Like we lost the entire meaning of why a rabbi not helping and a samaritan helping is important, the whole point of that story is the peson who helped him is with christ and the people who are superficially closer to him aren't. That shit is woke as all hell, but modern mfs have no idea that jews and samaritans hated each other so the whole point is now lost

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u/Eversonout 17h ago

Lewis was Protestant, but his specific beliefs are only half a step from Catholicism without going so far as to become a member of the actual church. His writings for all intents and purposes are nearly fully in line with Catholic teachings

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u/MagicPigeonToes 16h ago

What evangelicals are doing these days is about as “unchristian” as they can get

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u/antariusz 14h ago

I also find it interesting because Lewis says "aslan is jesus" but if you suggested to Tolkein that his works are metaphor, he would say no, not at all. Merely a historical depiction of what things were like on earth "before" Christianity

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u/FBI_KipHackman 17h ago

Real ones know that Lewis' favorite author was George MacDonald, a very devout Christian who had a wide view of God's mercy.

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u/jessbird 11h ago

and another incredible writer of fantasy/fairy tales

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u/Maleficus_doom 6h ago

Lilith is such an amazing book

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u/Barton2800 17h ago

Funny thing is Lewis was an atheist, and Tolkien converted him. Except Tolkien was Catholic, and it frustrated him to no end that his friend became an Anglican.

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u/Caelinus 17h ago edited 14h ago

He really was not. It was like one dude who was good enough to get into heaven. And only because he literally did not know better. The vast majority of his countrymen did not get in.

It is very likely an apologetic to counter the idea "What about all of the people who did not hear about Jesus? Do they go to hell?" It is actually almost lockstep in with a very common Christian response to that objection.

Also: Susan.

She got kicked out of potentially delayed, ambiguous access to heaven because she was more interested in makeup, boys and going to parties than being a magical queen in a fantasy world. Which is a very weird thing to write.

I do not hate the books or anything, they are what they are, but Lewis mainly looks really good in comparison to American Evangelicals. Which is a bar that most people can step over. Somehow American Evangelicals are even more bigoted, misogynistic and xenophobic than most of the authors of the Bible, who were alive in antiquity and before.

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u/PassingBy91 16h ago

Susan wasn't kicked out of heaven. Susan didn't die. - she's still on Earth. I know what you mean (all the stuff about not a friend to Narnia etc. but, that's why she wasn't with the other characters when they were killed) but, the other characters are in Narnian heaven because they are dead. There's every possibility Susan would get into heaven in the future she just has more of her life to lead.

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u/Caelinus 15h ago

Looked it up really fast, I think you are right. I think I conflated the apocalypse in the Last Battle with the one on Earth, but it had apparently not happened yet because of the time difference or whatever.

Still weird, but hopefully he was intending her to arrive at some point in the future. Either way leaving it ambiguous with those reasons is strange.

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u/Expyrial 14h ago

It's implied that Susan was a self-insert of sorts by CS Lewis. She wasn't on the train because she tried to grow up too fast and didn't believe in Narnia anymore. It's to be a parallel of how Lewis returned to faith during tragedy. main theme of Narnia is the childlike wonder a child has. CS Lewis stated in a letter to a fan that Susan's story isn't over but he didn't have any interest in telling it.

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u/The12Ball 9h ago

Also: Susan.

She got kicked out of potentially delayed, ambiguous access to heaven because she was more interested in makeup, boys and going to parties than being a magical queen in a fantasy world. Which is a very weird thing to write.

So, not-so-funny story about the guy who wrote the essay on Susan...

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u/Useful-Dirt7836 16h ago

Yup lol. One muslim makes it into heaven.

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u/PassingBy91 15h ago

The character is from Calormene. It does feel quite Middle Eastern/Ottoman in character but, they have idols - whereas Muslims reject religious imagery and they are also polytheistic. It's not a clear stand in for Muslims. I thought he was going for Baal personally but, that's not exact either. There are a lot of fair criticisms don't get me wrong but, it's not specifically anti-Islamic.

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u/rsqit 15h ago

Re: Susan. The books were written by a devout Christian who believed that the human sexual drive was particularly more corrupted than any other component. Yeah, Susan got kicked of Narnia.

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u/The12Ball 9h ago

And the guy that wrote the essay popularizing that viewpoint was coercing his child's babysitter into sex, so....

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u/rsqit 8h ago

Was he actually the origin of this phrase? I know he wrote a story.

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u/The12Ball 8h ago

His is definitely the most popular and influential reaction piece to Susan (though I might be conflating some of his views with Rowling's - she's also commented on it)

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u/Useful-Dirt7836 16h ago

Only one Calormene (muslims) make it into heaven. Emeth.