The families of C.S. Lewis’s two stepsons, David and Douglas Gresham, have issued a statement through Netflix backing Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew. It was first reported on October 6 and has been recirculating since, and it reads:
“From our ongoing conversations with Greta Gerwig, we have personally witnessed her sincere passion for the Narnia series. Her life-long love of C.S. Lewis is apparent to everyone involved with this film. We saw this enthusiasm during our visit to the set in London.
“We are thrilled to be working with such a talented and accomplished director and production team, and are keen to continue working with them on future projects. Our vision is for this movie to be enormously successful and for this calibre of talent to be applied to all of the Chronicles of Narnia.”
The same reports say family members have not yet watched footage or heard audio from the film. It opens in theaters on February 12, 2027 and reaches Netflix on April 2.
Who Is Speaking for Lewis
C.S. Lewis had no children of his own. David and Douglas Gresham became his stepsons when he married their mother, Joy Davidman, in 1956. She died of cancer in 1960, and Lewis raised the boys until his own death in 1963, when Douglas was 18.
David Gresham died on December 25, 2014, so a statement from “the families of David and Douglas” speaks for a dead man’s relatives and for Douglas. Douglas Gresham co-produced the three Walden Media films and holds an executive producer credit on Gerwig’s film, which means the man praising the director’s passion is also credited as a producer on her film. The statement went out through Netflix, and the terms under which the C.S. Lewis Company licensed the rights to the studio have not been disclosed.
Christopher Tolkien is the contrast. He served as the sole literary executor of his father’s estate for decades, spent much of his life editing J.R.R. Tolkien’s manuscripts into The Silmarillion and the twelve volumes of The History of Middle-earth, and told Le Monde in 2012: “They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25.” He resigned as a director of the Tolkien Estate in 2017 and died in 2020.
Gresham’s record is different. Lewis never sold the film rights in his lifetime because he doubted a movie could render Narnia, and the first Walden film went ahead only after Gresham approved it, having watched a demo reel of computer-generated animals. He has approved adaptations rather than fought them ever since.
How the Rights Moved From Lewis to Netflix
The film rights passed through a short chain of hands, and none of them was Lewis’s choice after 1963.
Netflix’s Ted Sarandos said at the 2018 signing: “Families have fallen in love with characters like Aslan and the entire world of Narnia, and we’re thrilled to be their home for years to come.” Gresham said then: “Netflix seems to be the very best medium with which to achieve this aim, and I am looking forward to working with them towards this goal.”
A Blessing Netflix Needed
The order of events is the story. Meryl Streep’s casting as Aslan drew objections from Christian writers and fans in spring 2025, and a poll on the fan site NarniaWeb found 65 percent of respondents “extremely concerned.” In September, Movieguide founder Ted Baehr, who has personal relationships with members of Lewis’s family, said in a CBN interview: “They’re very concerned about it because they’re worried that it’s going to, you know, destroy the brand.”
Then, on October 6, a statement arrived through Netflix. It does not mention Aslan, Streep or any change to the books. It praises Gerwig’s passion and says the family wants the film to be “enormously successful.” Family members have not seen footage or heard audio.
A producer said in December 2024 that Gerwig has a “very new take” that is “all about rock ‘n’ roll,” and this is a corruption of Lewis’s work that every fan can see coming. A statement that avoids the changes and arrives a month after a friend of the family said they were upset is a studio securing a blessing it can circulate, and it is circulating in the same week Netflix fired the film chief who reportedly clashed with Gerwig over this movie.
Who Gets to Say?
Lewis kept the film rights unsold because he doubted the screen could do Narnia justice. If two stepsons’ families who license those rights to a streamer now say this version is what he would have wanted, what do they know about his wishes that he did not?
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Even his step-sons have died so we're talking about step-grandkids.