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The first trailer for Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, directed by Greta Gerwig, has sparked a fierce backlash from fans of C. S. Lewis’s beloved book series. Some viewers branded the footage “weird, disastrous nonsense,” while others accused the filmmakers of relying too heavily on CGI and turning the iconic fantasy into yet another Marvel-style blockbuster.

Gerwig, the director of Barbie, has written and directed the first-ever film adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew — chronologically the first story in The Chronicles of Narnia, which explores the origins of the magical world.

Netflix will release the film in theaters in February 2027. The promotional campaign kicked off on Tuesday, October 13, with a private trailer screening for select journalists and influencers at an IMAX theater in New York City.

Gerwig admitted that she was unable to hold back tears when she watched the trailer on the big screen. However, once the footage was posted on YouTube, the audience reaction proved far less unanimous.

The trailer opens with a shot of the famous wardrobe before introducing Uncle Andrew, played by Daniel Craig. He tells the children — Digory Kirke, played by David McKenna, and Polly Plummer, portrayed by Beatrice Campbell — that magic is real.

Soon, the characters use a magical ring to travel to a surreal world. The trailer features glittering landscapes, flying horses, the White Witch, played by Emma Mackey, and the lion Aslan, voiced by Meryl Streep. In one scene, Aslan sings Narnia into existence, seemingly creating the world with his voice.

All of this is set to Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, a song notoriously difficult to license.

According to Gerwig, musicians Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were so impressed by the film when she showed it to them that they agreed to let her use the legendary track.

However, the combination of elaborate CGI and the iconic rock anthem irritated some fans.

“My God, this looks so awful. Spectacle for spectacle’s sake: no intrigue, no sense of ‘less is more,’ no subtlety — just bombast and a riot of colors,” one YouTube user wrote.

Another viewer lamented that the filmmakers had squandered the source material’s enormous potential.

“What a waste! There was something grounded and relatable about the Narnia stories, just as there was in the previous films. That quality is present in the books, too — it’s what makes them so powerful,” the commenter said.

Another described the adaptation as “weird, disastrous nonsense,” adding that the CGI backgrounds looked almost worse than anything they had ever seen in a movie.

Others delivered a more concise verdict: “CGI garbage.” One user on X claimed that C. S. Lewis would be devastated to see such an interpretation of his work.

“This is a textbook example of how excessive CGI can strip a story of its soul. Netflix has practically butchered Narnia visually — everything looks as though it was generated by AI,” another viewer wrote.

Some compared the film to Marvel productions. One fan issued a plea to Gerwig and Netflix: “Please don’t turn my Narnia into Marvel.”

Others came up with tongue-in-cheek slogans for the upcoming movie, including “Aslan the Great Lion returns in Avengers: Doomsday” and “Guardians of the Narnia Galaxy.”

Not everyone, however, was unimpressed by the trailer. Some viewers urged critics to reserve judgment until the film’s release.

The criticism has extended beyond the visual effects to the filmmakers’ interpretation of the characters. Some viewers took issue with how Digory and Polly are portrayed in the new adaptation, as well as the decision to cast a woman as the voice of Aslan.

Others fear that the filmmakers will stray from Lewis’s central ideas and replace them with their own interpretations.

The casting of Meryl Streep as Aslan has proved particularly controversial. Even before the trailer was released, some critics accused the filmmakers of trying to make the story more aligned with contemporary ideas about gender.

In the original Chronicles of Narnia film trilogy, released between 2005 and 2010, Aslan was voiced by Liam Neeson.

Following the announcement of Streep’s casting, social media users began debating whether it was appropriate to have a female actor voice the mighty lion, traditionally depicted as male.

“If you remove the Christian themes from Narnia, you end up with a completely different story,” one X user wrote.

Another pointed out the connection between Aslan and Jesus Christ: “Jesus was a man, and Aslan is obviously a male lion. What is going on?”

Another fan addressed Streep directly, saying they had admired her talent for 40 years but believed her involvement in the project was a mistake.

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