Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew now has its first trailer.
The trailer leans into the creation of Narnia rather than a battle-driven franchise reset. The footage centers on the origin of the fantasy world, with Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” underscoring the launch campaign. The Associated Press reported that Gerwig met Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to secure permission for the song.
That choice fits the book Netflix is adapting. The Magician’s Nephew, first published in 1955, is a prequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the first screen adaptation of that novel. Gerwig wrote the screenplay and directed the film, with newcomers David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell joined by a cast that includes Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds, Daniel Craig and Meryl Streep.
Gerwig has framed the film’s size around creation rather than destruction. At the New York trailer event, AP quoted her saying, “Movies this size are usually about destruction.” Netflix is selling wonder as spectacle, not only familiar fantasy branding.
The release plan is the bigger test
Netflix’s Tudum announcement says the fantasy film will start with IMAX-only sneak previews on Feb. 10, 2027, open in IMAX and theaters worldwide on Feb. 12, and debut on Netflix on April 2. If those dates hold, that creates a 49-day theatrical-first period from the wide release to streaming. Netflix will handle distribution in North America, while Sony Pictures Entertainment will distribute outside North America.
That division is significant. A global theatrical release is not the same as making a film available inside an app. It requires local booking, ticketing, exhibitor relationships, marketing coordination and a release calendar built around theater demand. Sony’s international role gives the rollout a conventional studio partner outside North America while Netflix keeps the film tied to its own platform.
A wider plan than the original IMAX run
The current setup is broader than the arrangement IMAX disclosed last year. In a 2025 interim report, IMAX said it had announced an agreement with Netflix to debut Gerwig’s Narnia exclusively across the IMAX network for a two-week run beginning Thanksgiving 2026. AP also reported that the film had been slated for November before Netflix pushed it to 2027 so it could receive a global theatrical release.
The shift changes the meaning of the trailer. This is no longer only an IMAX event attached to a streaming movie. It is being positioned like a studio-scale theatrical launch with a guaranteed Netflix afterlife already on the calendar.
Why the reported budget raises the stakes
AP reported a $280 million production cost, though Netflix has not confirmed a budget figure in its own Tudum announcement. This is a franchise-scale film from the director of Barbie, built around Narnia books that Netflix has been developing under a multi-year rights deal since 2018.
That size explains the release balance. A much shorter gap would risk training audiences to wait for Netflix. A much longer traditional window would weaken the subscriber payoff. The current plan tries to do both jobs: give the theatrical campaign a period of scarcity, then turn the same film into a spring streaming driver.
The franchise question
The choice of The Magician’s Nephew also signals that Netflix is not simply remaking the best-known 2005 entry. It is starting with Narnia’s origin story and asking audiences to treat the mythology itself as the event.
The marketing challenge is direct. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the Narnia title most casual moviegoers know. The Magician’s Nephew asks the campaign to sell a less familiar entry point while promising the beginning of the world viewers remember. That gives Gerwig and Netflix room to introduce the world before the wardrobe, rather than competing shot-for-shot with earlier screen memories.
What comes next
The next meaningful details will be less about fantasy lore and more about execution: how many theaters carry the film, how premium-screen demand is handled after the IMAX previews, when ticketing opens, and whether Netflix publicly emphasizes box office performance before the April streaming launch.
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