Chronicles of Narnia to be Rebooted with The Silver Chair
It’s been six years since The Chronicles of Narnia’s last instalment and, it’s fair to say, the franchise hasn’t lived up to its Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter level ambition.
So it’s no surprise to learn that producer Mark Gordon has piped up to confirm that the next film in the series, The Silver Chair will be a reboot.
"We’re hoping to be able to make the movie very shortly," Gordon tells Collider. "We’re very excited about it. It’s all going to be a brand new franchise. All original. All original characters, different directors, and an entire new [filmmaking] team that this is coming from."
It’s been a rough ride for the denizens of Narnia – Disney bailed on the franchise after two films, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian - leaving Fox to swoop in for the third. The rest was more-or-less silence although there was talk of adapting The Magician's Nephew before attention once again turned to The Silver Chair.
David Magee (Life of Pi) was revealed to have been working on a screenplay in 2013.
As for the planned reboot; time has basically forced their hand – all the child actors from the previous films are now in their twenties – although that doesn’t pose too much of a problem in terms of characters specifically featured in The Silver Chair. However, we would love to see Liam Neeson return to voice Aslan.
The rights to C.S. Lewis' books remain with The Lewis Company, so whether Fox will pick up the baton again, or whether the next Narnia will end up at another studio - its third in four films - remains to be seen.