Earlier this year Amazon announced its $1 billion, five-season Lord of the Rings remake. Now Netflix is coming back with the rights to a fantasy classic of its own. The streaming giant closed a multi-year deal with the C.S. Lewis Company to develop intersecting TV series and movies based on the author's Chronicles of Narnia books.
According to Deadline, Netflix is working with Entertainment One to create a whole Narnia universe, similar to that of Marvel or Star Wars. This marks the first time the rights of the entire series, all seven books, have been owned by a single company. “C.S. Lewis’ beloved Chronicles of Narnia stories have resonated with generations of readers around the world,” Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer of Netflix, told Deadline. “Families have fallen in love with characters like Aslan and the entire world of Narnia, and we’re thrilled to be their home for years to come.”
At this point, the biggest adaptations of the books include Sony’s three films The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Prince Caspian (2008), and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010). The trio grossed $1.5 billion worldwide.
“It is wonderful to know that folks from all over are looking forward to seeing more of Narnia, and that the advances in production and distribution technology have made it possible for us to make Narnian adventures come to life all over the world,” C.S. Lewis’s stepson Douglas Gresham said. “Netflix seems to be the very best medium with which to achieve this aim, and I am looking forward to working with them towards this goal.”
Amazon's Lord of the Rings won't be Netflix's only marquee fantasy competition; Amazon on Tuesday also announced a series order for an adaptation of Robert Jordan's 14-book saga The Wheel of Time. And of course Game of Thrones has its prequel spinoff sometime after the series' 2019 finale.
