Narnia movies in order

Release order or chronological order?

Release order means the order the films arrived: the wardrobe, then Caspian, then the Dawn Treader, then the creation of Narnia in 2027. Chronological order moves The Magician's Nephew to the front, because it covers how the country came to exist.

The books have been sold both ways, and the argument goes back to a letter Lewis wrote in 1957 to an eleven-year-old who preferred the chronological order. Lewis told him he agreed with his order over his mother's, then added that perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone reads them. His publisher later renumbered the series so The Magician's Nephew is book one and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is book two.

Lewis scholars have been unpicking that ever since, on the grounds that a kind reply to a child is thin evidence of a considered position. The practical case is stronger and points the other way: The Magician's Nephew explains the lamp-post, the wardrobe and where the White Witch came from. Those are payoffs if you have seen the first film and loose trivia if you have not.

Greta Gerwig is not making a prequel

This is the part most order questions get wrong. Narnia: The Magician's Nephew is a new adaptation with a new cast, not a fourth entry in the 2005 trilogy. Nothing carries over, so nothing is spoiled either way.

Gerwig writes and directs, with Meryl Streep as Aslan, Daniel Craig as Uncle Andrew and Emma Mackey as Jadis. It opens in cinemas on 12 February 2027, with IMAX previews from the 10th, and lands on Netflix on 2 April 2027.

It was originally set for Thanksgiving 2026 as an IMAX-only run. A cast injury pushed production back about six weeks, and Netflix used the slip to widen the plan into a full theatrical release with a 45-day exclusive window, which it has never given a film before. Gerwig is signed for two Narnia films.

Why the first three stopped

Disney released The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 2005 and Prince Caspian in 2008, then dropped out. 20th Century Fox picked up The Voyage of the Dawn Treader for 2010, and no fourth film followed.

A version of The Silver Chair was announced in 2013 and got as far as pre-production. Those plans were superseded in October 2018, when Netflix bought the rights to the whole series, which is where Gerwig's films come from.

Can you skip any?

The three Walden films are episodic rather than serialised, so skipping is cheaper here than in most franchises. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the one to drop if you drop one: it sends two of the four children east on a self-contained voyage and sets up a sequel that never arrived.

Seven books, four films. The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle have never been filmed for cinemas.