Netflix postpones Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ movie release to 2027

Audiences will have to wait a few more months to see ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’ as its release date has been pushed back from Thanksgiving to February 12, 2027.

In addition to re-releasing “Narnia” on the big screen and being writer-director Greta Gerwig’s first film since “Barbie,” “The Sorcerer’s Nephew” seems like the next step in Netflix’s relationship with movie theaters, and its delayed release is taking it even further.

The company previously said “The Magician’s Nephew” would play exclusively on Imax screens for at least two weeks before its Christmas streaming release. Although this may be an ambitious theatrical release by Netflix standards, it is relatively limited compared to other Hollywood blockbusters.

Now, Netflix has revealed that “The Magician’s Nephew” will begin exclusive Imax previews on February 10, 2027, before releasing globally in theaters on February 12. (It will, in Netflix’s words, be a “global event-ized release.”) The film doesn’t start streaming until April 2.

The company’s announcement didn’t provide more specifics about which theaters will show “The Sorcerer’s Nephew,” but Imax did issue a statement noting that major theater chains are unlikely to complain because the delay will mean the film will have a “full theatrical window.”

In fact, AMC Theaters recently highlighted the success of the final screening of ‘Stranger Things’ and said it is planning more collaborations with Netflix. At the same time, the streamer’s limited support for theatrical releases and resistance to an exclusive theatrical window reportedly became a “deal breaker” in negotiations with the “Stranger Things” producers, who ultimately signed an exclusive deal with Paramount.

“The Magician’s Nephew,” starring Daniel Craig and Meryl Streep, is an adaptation of one of the later books in C.S. Lewis’ classic fantasy series, a prequel that explains the origins of Narnia.

In Netflix’s announcement, Gerwig said she first read the book as a child. It was then that she “fell in love with the astonishingly impossible but utterly brilliant concept of a space lion singing vividly to the world of Narnia.”