Here is the Fourth
On book-to-screen adaptations, and what we may have missed about Netflix's new Narnia film. September and October 2025
Okay, I admit it: I’m naturally fussy about adaptations.
I still don’t particularly like it when versions of Romeo and Juliet, for example, don’t have both of them die at the end.
Now, like a miracle, Autumn brought me news of two NEW adaptations I’ve been wishing for since childhood - one historical, one fantasy. The latter is actually one of my favourite books of all time… oh, my!
Yes, the book-to-screen process is a big part of why I’m a writer. The fuss does come from a place of love, of caring about the story - but, on my 2025 quest to detach, can I let this go? Is it even one of the things that’s holding me back?
Welcome back to the non-fiction section of Exploring the Eyrie! These free-tier posts go out every two months within the fortnightly schedule.
One day, they’ll discuss my own novel(s). For now, they’re simply my thoughts on fiction in general, as well as the writing life:
Earliest in 2025, I reclaimed some balance between online and offline activities.
After that, I managed, for the first time in years, to read a novel in full, partly in support of Ukraine.
During May and June, I dipped into Discworld - and myself.
July and August were all about the magic of enthusiasm; I followed fun and made powerful novel-plotting progress.
In September and October, I continued studying story structure… this time, thinking about book-to-screen adaptations.
If you’re a SFF fan, to also be a Zillennial means you were treated to a veritable onscreen feast of the genre during your noughties childhood. There was LOTR, Harry Potter, Merlin, The Golden Compass, Doctor Who… the list goes on.
While I was always a reader, the decade was firmly part of the still-ongoing screen age. Film and TV has often1 introduced me to my favourite books, rather than the other way around, ever since.
It hasn’t always worked out. The worst TV adaptation I’ve seen2 is not the much-vilified3 The Rings of Power (2022-present), but The Watch (2021), an attempt so baffling that you hardly ever see it mentioned on social media at all - for good or ill.
It’s a shame, because the people involved are obviously talented. But while Discworld is, yes, steampunk… well, it’s a lot more steam than punk. The Watch, in contrast, is punk with barely a sliver of steam floating around.
I suppose it’s because Pratchett’s style is difficult to adapt; many jokes, for example, work best on the page. Both The Amazing Maurice (2022) and Series 1 of Good Omens (2019), however, are solid.
So it is possible for Discworld to do well.
This brings me to my first wish come true: a screen version of the Battle of Hastings, fought 959 years ago this October.
The books being adapted here are, technically, the history books, rather than any novel. Unhappily, this TV series doesn’t stick to them - even when it comes to the events we’re sure of.
Sigh.
I made myself get over it, though. It may be poor history, but I did find the drama gripping. Having the story focus on Harold and William, and then titling said story King & Conqueror… that was one of those Jane Austen-esque creative choices that’s very simple and very satisfying.
As a writer, I’ve taken notes.
Be Careful What You Wish For
Let’s turn to my second - and deeper - wish come true. Another dish in the noughties SFF screen feast was Narnia, which celebrates two anniversaries in 2025: 75 years4 since the first book was published, and 20 years5 since its Walden Media movie adaptation was released.
While not necessarily a juggernaut of fantasy franchises - not compared to the Wizarding World, at any rate - the land of Narnia holds a special place in Zillennial hearts… mainly because The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) is a dem fine film.
And, despite their character6 and plot7 changes, the sequels were enjoyable enough that many were still delighted to get a fourth movie.
I wished and wished that this would be The Magician’s Nephew, my favourite of all the books. It turned out that it was actually going to be The Silver Chair, which, okay, made more sense… but then, production disappointingly petered out anyway.
Fifteen years on, however, we’re getting a reboot - and it really is The Magician’s Nephew, this time.
Oh, my.
The trouble is, my first reaction is actually now dismay. According to set photos, Earth is Earth in the 1950s - and the Edwardian/late Victorian setting was what captured my heart in the first place!
(It’s also a wildly different change. What does this mean re any future Pevensie stories?)
Still, let’s detach. My quibbles about Romeo and Juliet adaptations come from, as with King & Conqueror, a history-centred perspective. If Juliet’s parents don’t give up on wedding plans after losing Tybalt, their own flesh and blood, they’re not going to give them up for some Montague… if Juliet doesn’t die, she’s in huge danger of being married off.
And so, I dislike Gnomeo and Juliet (2011), for example. But I tolerate it because it’s a family film8 - and this is what we may have missed about Netflix-Narnia’s huge time change:
The Magician’s Nephew is set when readers’ grandparents were children.
And many kids of the 2020s have grandparents who were children in… drumroll, please… the 1950s!
It’s got to be for everyone. And maybe the general audience already firmly associates Narnia with the mid-20th century anyway?
Finally, it turns out that I’ve detached more than I ever knew: Meryl Streep9 voicing Aslan? The idea genuinely doesn’t bother me.
I re-read Prince Caspian, this September. I realised that one of its themes is actually the importance of letting masculine and feminine energies be free to work together10; Miraz, on the other hand, continually oppresses the feminine.
So, if the Streep rumour - and it is, at the time of writing, only a rumour - is true, I believe it’ll work…
…as long as the character remains a lion (i.e. male). But those set photos do suggest that this is so.
Yes, there’s still cause for optimism. Gerwig, too, is a respected filmmaker; the confirmed cast is incredible.
And whatever happens, my much longed-for adaptation certainly has far to fall before it reaches the strange limbo of The Watch (2021).
Copyright © E.A. Colquitt 2025.
No AI was knowingly used in the creation of this work. No portion of this work may be used for training AI without written permission from the author.
Discworld is a major exception.
Albeit more recently.
Unfairly, in my opinion. Sometimes, it doesn’t feel like Tolkien… but when it does, it really does, for me ❤️
In October.
In December.
Prince Caspian (2008).
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010).
And also, because both of them survive and can actually be together.
Allegedly. Allegedly! (Please don’t shoot the messenger…)
Under God.