Rebooting the Long-Dormant Chronicles of Narnia Actually Makes Perfect Sense

It’s been a long time coming, Narnia.

The Silver Chair, the fourth installment in the the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, is finally set for a silver-screen adaptation, Deadline reports. Oscar nominee David Magee (The Life of Pi) will pen the script. TriStar, eOne, and the Mark Gordon Company will finance the film, while Sony and eOne will distribute. Gordon will also co-produce the project.

The story takes place decades after the events of the last book; appropriate, since it's been six years since the last Narnia film was released. It tells the tale of the Pevensie children’s cousin Eustace Scrubb as he journeys through the magical realm to find the missing Prince Rilian, heir to the throne and son of the valiant King Caspian.

Word of the next movie in the Narnia series may come as a surprise to filmgoers; after all, 2010’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, starring Ben Barnes, bowed to middling reviews and didn’t make as much money as previous installments.

Then again, it still earned more than $415 million at the box office.

This Silver Chair adaptation has been in the works for quite some time, despite Dawn Treader’s relatively disappointing performance. At this winter’s TCA presentations, Gordon confirmed that the film would bring life to Narnia by launching “a brand new franchise. All original. All original characters, different directors, and an entire new team that this is coming from.”

The film offers a strategic opportunity to cash in on an already lucrative franchise with a built-in audience and respected nostalgia appeal. In an overstuffed age of remakes, sprawling superhero adaptations, and a looming monster cinematic universe, it was only a matter of time before something like Narnia was brought back to the masses—particularly those who live overseas, the audiences who bolstered the series to box-office glory in the first place.

In addition, the franchise is firmly rooted in Christian theology, and faith-based films tend to do extremely well at the box office. Over the past few years, movies like Miracles From Heaven have managed to outpace critically acclaimed secular films and see massive financial returns. That audience is surely ready to splurge once more on a fantasy tale that’s essentially a blockbuster adaptation of the Bible.

Christian audiences aside, the original trio of Narnia films never captured the global zeitgeist quite in the same way as franchises like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. But a soft reboot will give audiences fresh characters to work with—as well as a second chance to recapture the magic that Lewis created all those years ago.