An important casting for Greta Gerwig’s Chronicles of Narnia movie has been settled: Emma Mackey will portray Jadis the White Witch, the series’ chief antagonist.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, this marks a reunion between director and Death on the Nile star after Mackey previously appeared in Barbie. There’ve been rumors swirling around for months that Mackey, pop star Charli XCX, and The Substance‘s Margaret Qualley were all in the running for the role, famously played by Tilda Swinton in the 2005 Disney movie and its two sequels, 2008’s Prince Caspian and 2010’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Gerwig’s Narnia movie is reportedly based on The Magician’s Nephew, the sixth book in C.S. Lewis’ youth-fantasy series. Walden Media intended to continue the earlier film series by adapting Nephew, but its contract with Lewis’ estate later expired. There’ve been numerous goes at trying to adapt the remaining books, eventually resulting in Netflix picking up the rights so it could tackle that endeavor with new movies and shows, and later got Gerwig on board.
To date, the only other casting that appears to be in the cards for the new Narnia movie is Meryl Streep as Aslan, the talking lion who allies with the Penvensies to fight against the Witch. Other actors will be revealed over time ahead of the film’s eventual release—first in theaters, then on Netflix at a later date.
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