David McKenna – the 13-year-old Belfast native cast as Digory Kirke in Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew – has finally spoken publicly about his involvement with the film.
The comments came during a new interview with Decider promoting his breakout turn as Piggy in Netflix’s Lord of the Flies.
Until now, McKenna has stayed conspicuously tight-lipped. When Deadline spoke to him back in March, his casting had not been officially confirmed, and he would only tease that he had “wrapped a feature film that will be on IMAX this year.”
With Netflix having since confirmed the cast, the embargo has evidently loosened, if only a little.
Asked by Decider what it was like to share a set with Gerwig, Meryl Streep, and Daniel Craig, and what he could tease, McKenna kept things warm but guarded:
It was a brilliant experience, honestly. I mean, I can’t wait to talk about it a lot more whenever that time comes. But no, it was a brilliant experience and Greta was amazing to work with. She’s just brilliant. And yeah, I can’t wait for everyone to see it and I hope they all enjoy it.”
David McKenna
As with all public comments from the cast; a diplomatic non-answer. However, there is a neat thread linking his two big projects.
Casting director Nina Gold (the powerhouse behind Game of Thrones, The Crown, and Baby Reindeer) worked on both Lord of the Flies and Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew. In a recent interview for IndieWire, she commented:
He’s quite a kind of old soul, isn’t he? You feel like you can see into his brain somehow when he’s looking at you from the screen. He really is quite unusually brilliant”.
Nina Gold
McKenna will make his big-screen debut as Digory when Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew opens in theatres and IMAX on February 12, 2027, ahead of its Netflix debut on April 2.