Greta Gerwig's The Magician's Nephew garners cheers and censure

Narnia fans are split over Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew.

The glam rock-styled trailer for the film of the sixth novel in CS Lewis' seven-book series dropped on Tuesday and has garnered a range of strong reactions on social media.

Set to the tune of Led Zeppelin's powerhouse track Stairway to Heaven, the trailer gives a peek into the upcoming adaptation by the Barbie writer-director.

"I would not be who I am without these books," Gerwig told Stephen Colbert of the Narnia series at the unveiling of the trailer. "They created me."

Fans have judged the trailer on a wide spectrum of opinion from "hands down, the best trailer I've seen in years" to "a bizarre, disastrous fever dream interpretation with some of the worst looking CGI backgrounds ever put on film".

The Magician's Nephew, published in 1955, acts as a prequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It follows two children in 1900 London who, through a magic ring, are transported into another world to witness Narnia's creation by the lion Aslan.

An all-star cast includes Lord of the Flies star David McKenna as Digory Kirke; Beatrice Campbell as Polly Plummer; Sex Education's Emma Mackey as the White Witch; former 007 Daniel Craig as Uncle Andrew Ketterley; Promising Young Woman lead Carey Mulligan as Mabel Kirke; and Meryl Streep as the voice of Aslan.

Netflix will release Narnia: The Magician's Nephew in cinemas on 12 February 2027.