{"id":622988,"date":"2026-09-21T15:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T15:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/622988\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T15:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T15:54:10","slug":"narnia-the-magicians-nephew-explained-five-things-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/622988\/","title":{"rendered":"Narnia: The Magician\u2019s Nephew Explained: Five Things To Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new era of Narnia is upon us. While audiences have already witnessed takes on The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe<\/a>, Prince Caspian<\/a>, and Voyage Of The Dawn Treader<\/a> in the form of big-screen epics, animation, and a seriously scary BBC series, Greta Gerwig is set to bring The Magician\u2019s Nephew to screens for the very first time. This particular instalment of C.S. Lewis\u2019 much-loved book series introduces familiar characters anew, discovered by two young world-hopping adventurers who set the events of the whole literary franchise into motion. Although it may not be the most widely known of the seminal franchise, The Magician\u2019s Nephew shows Narnia like never before.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you need to know before venturing into Gerwig\u2019s bold new vision<\/a>:<\/p>\n

1) It\u2019s the first story chronologically<\/p>\n

Despite being the sixth in a seven-book series, The Magician’s Nephew actually kicks off the timeline, and serves as an origin story for Narnia itself. Its aforementioned two heroes are a pair of plucky London kids: Polly (played by Beatrice Campbell in the film) and her neighbour Digory (David McKenna), who grows up to become the Professor who houses Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie some 40 years later in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (Lewis\u2019 debut Narnia book).<\/p>\n

2) There are magic rings<\/p>\n

Digory shares a house with his family, including his gravely ill mother (Carey Mulligan) and Uncle Andrew<\/a> (Daniel Craig), an amateur magician who believes that he\u2019s found the key to jumping between different worlds by using a set of two magic rings. After a series of seemingly failed attempts involving some rather unfortunate guinea pigs, Andrew sends Polly and Digory off to do his mystical bidding with a set of rings each, unaware of just what (or where) he\u2019s sending them into. This clueless sorcerer holds more power than he thinks.<\/p>\n

\"Narnia:3) There\u2019s a Wood Between The Worlds<\/p>\n

Along their travels, Polly and Digory crash land into the Wood Between The Worlds (see above), an intricate, seemingly endless network of moss-cushioned pools that lead to, well, lots of different worlds \u2013 alongside their own homeworld, the kids also step into Charn, an eerie land that has faced total disaster. Their journey through the worlds sees them encounters various friends and foes \u2013 towering witch Jadis<\/a> (Emma Mackey), Uncle Andrew, as well as a London local called Frank (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), and his loyal horse Strawberry, accidentally tagging along for the ride.<\/p>\n

4) It sets up the Witch and the Lion\u2026<\/p>\n

Cosmic lion Aslan (here voiced by Meryl Streep<\/a>) was a major figure right from Lewis\u2019 first Narnia novel \u2013 but The Magician\u2019s Nephew gives him a proper magical introduction. And during the course of the story, we\u2019ll witness him creating Narnia itself, through music. As for the series\u2019 villains, we\u2019ll witness an origin of evil too, since Jadis is destined to become the White Witch. As you may know, the pair go on to clash violently in future over the ruling of Narnia.<\/p>\n

5) \u2026but the Wardrobe is tbc<\/p>\n

No storage-centric spoilers here, but the wardrobe is not a big feature of The Magician\u2019s Nephew story. Still, for any keen carpenters out there, don\u2019t be put off \u2013 there might be hints at future furniture adventures in Digory and Polly\u2019s tale.<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

Read Empire\u2019s full world-exclusive Narnia: The Magician\u2019s Nephew cover<\/a> story \u2013 going on set with Greta Gerwig and her cast, including Daniel Craig, Emma Mackey, and Meryl Streep, to get the first word on her epic fantasy adaptation \u2013 in the November 2026 issue, on sale Thursday September 24. Pre-order a copy online here<\/a>. Narnia: The Magician\u2019s Nephew comes to cinemas from February 12, 2027, and comes to Netflix from April 2, 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new era of Narnia is upon us. While audiences have already witnessed takes on The Lion, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":["post-622988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}