'ASLAN REMIXED': Meryl Streep to voice rainbow-colored, David Bowie-inspired Aslan in Greta Gerwig's 'rock n' roll' Narnia adaptation

Director Greta Gerwig has confirmed that Meryl Streep will be voicing Aslan in her upcoming rendition of C.S. Lewis’ famed Chronicles of Narnia book The Magician’s Nephew, and that the lion character that is central to the story has been designed with David Bowie as inspiration. 

Gerwig, who directed both the Barbie movie and the 2019 rendition of Little Women, told Empire of the casting decision, “I wanted someone who was profound but not pretentious, who had gravitas but not morose self-seriousness. Someone who could communicate depth and pathos as well as joy and delight. I wanted someone who was older than 70, so there was a wisdom of experience, but who also had the capacity of fresh wonder, like a child. And also to be one of the greatest actors to ever do it. That list is not a long one.”

Empire’s November edition features a rendition of Aslan for Netflix’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew. The character, which has parallels to Jesus Christ, is seen with rainbow coloring, heterochromatic eyes, and stripes on the canonically male character’s fur. 

Empire wrote on the character’s design, “In Gerwig’s film, Aslan’s heterochromic eyes and bold red-striped visage nods to one of her key creative inspirations: David Bowie.” The cover says the character is “Aslan Remixed.” 

Gerwig told the outlet of her inspiration for the retelling, “I wanted a rock opera. I wanted it to be big and transporting.” She added, saying that it would not be a literal rock opera, “Narnia is literally a world made out of music. It is a world sung to life by Aslan, and rock ’n’ roll to me felt like a world made out of music.”

The Magician’s Nephew will be set in post-war 1950’s Britain instead of the early 20th-century setting of the novel. 

The rendition of the famed character drew backlash, including from Human Events Daily host Jack Posobiec. “Netflix just revealed they are making Aslan rainbow colors. Do you understand how this works yet? They will come after all cultural and religious symbols one by one to degrade, subvert, and groom children. This is what they do,” he wrote. 

Writer Joshua Lisec wrote, “‘most rock’n’roll blockbuster.’ Not words that ought ever be used to describe anything associated with Narnia.”