Included in this period of time is The Horse and His Boy: another rather controversial book for its unfavorable representation of people of color, but which could be excellent if tackled by the right writers, and actually provide a much-needed chance for Middle-Eastern representation in fantasy. Were they going to start from The Silver Chair and then come up with spin-offs before finally reaching The Last Battle?Īs fascinating as Narnia is, the best moment in its timeline for further adaptation is definitely the Golden Age of the Pevensies. Which made what they were trying to do incredibly confusing. However, even if they were to bring in the old cast, it seemed unlikely that writers would go with the last book next it’s possibly the most controversial one of the bunch, and not really viewer-friendly as a second movie. While it is true that Will Poulter, at 25, was probably too old to reprise his role as teenage Eustace Scrubb, the actors who played the Pevensie children were at the perfect age for The Last Battle, if it were made within the next few years. If this supposed “reboot” had continued, where would it have gone? Confusing implications for the future While that could be changed for the sake of continuity, Jill has one of the least fascinating storylines out of all the Friends of Narnia, and it seems strange that the entire new franchise would be held up by her as a main character - one that is only present for two out of the seven books. In the books, Jill loses her position as our point of view in The Last Battle, to King Tirian. It seems likely that a big name would be cast to portray her one that can draw in an audience for a confusing film like this one, and somehow capture audiences in the same way the Pevensies did with the first few movies.īut Narnia is unique in that, while it follows a certain group of characters, those characters aren’t necessarily the main point of view of all the books. There is some interesting potential in Jill Pole, the main protagonist of The Silver Chair. It’s hard to see how the story’s power can hold after such a lengthy absence… and even more so if he wasn’t going to be portrayed by the same actor. It has now been over a decade since Voyage, and no one particularly remembers Eustace Scrubb, or what he was like before Narnia changed him. After all, the book itself is set only a few months after its predecessor. The Silver Chair was written to follow Voyage as closely as possible. In the books, these are potent themes when read in juxtaposition to the stories before it - but for an audience that hasn’t experienced The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian or Voyage of the Dawn Treader, it might be hard to understand why the characters are feeling what they’re feeling, and even make sense of the tragedy of Caspian’s family. Eustace comes in expecting the magical land his cousin spoke to him about, the Narnians struggle with what the future holds, and Caspian literally dies. A huge element in the story is a sense of disenfranchisement with what Narnia has come to.
It’s hard to imagine how a The Silver Chair movie would bring in a new audience.