Fantasy fans, grab your rings of yellow and green — Narnia is officially back, and it came out swinging. The first trailer for Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew didn't just trend; it obliterated the internet, racking up 481.3 million views in its first seven days. That's more than double the first-week trailer numbers for Gerwig's own Barbie (240 million), and it left Wonka (237.2 million) and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (281.6 million) in the dust. The viewership figures come from WaveMetrix data shared during Netflix's earnings call this week.
The trailer debuted October 13 at an exclusive IMAX sneak-peek event in New York, where Gerwig sat down with Stephen Colbert to talk about her lifelong love of C.S. Lewis. And the trailer itself made rock history: it plays over Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" — the first time the band has ever licensed the song for a film or trailer. Gerwig personally met Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to ask for permission, and Page later called her "a powerhouse in the world of cinema."
This is a big deal for Narnia nerds: it's the first screen adaptation ever of Lewis's 1955 novel The Magician's Nephew — the creation story of Narnia itself. We're talking the origins of the White Witch, the lamppost, the wardrobe, and how Professor Kirke's childhood in a magical London ended up birthing a world. Bold cast picks too:
- Meryl Streep voices Aslan (the first woman to take the role — a choice that has split the fandom, though Lewis's stepsons' families have backed Gerwig's vision)
- Emma Mackey as Jadis, the young White Witch
- Daniel Craig as Uncle Andrew — yes, James Bond as the magician of the title
- Newcomers David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell as Digory and Polly
And here's the real plot twist: Netflix is treating this like a genuine blockbuster. IMAX sneak previews begin February 10, 2027, the worldwide theatrical release follows February 12 — Netflix's first wide theatrical opening, distributed domestically by Netflix and by Sony Pictures Releasing International overseas — with the Netflix premiere on April 2, 2027. That's a 49-day theatrical window, unheard of for the streamer, and Netflix has even committed to publishing box-office grosses so the world can see if 481 million trailer views turn into a billion-dollar fantasy.
Trailer views don't guarantee a billion-dollar movie — but they've never had a Narnia to test it on before. We'll see you at the lamppost.
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