Greta Gerwig’s Narnia and the Return of the "Handcrafted" Fantasy

Ricky Giamatti
7 days ago
2 min read

Beyond the CGI Forest

For a long time, the word "reboot" has felt like a threat. But when the person holding the megaphone is Greta Gerwig, the tone changes. New updates from Deadline regarding her upcoming adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix suggest that Gerwig is taking a radically different approach than the CGI-heavy fantasies of the early 2000s.

The news this morning points toward a "tactile, folk-horror adjacent" aesthetic. Gerwig is reportedly collaborating with veteran production designers to build Narnia as a physical space—one rooted in British mid-century aesthetics rather than generic digital gloss. This is exactly the kind of "sensation-first" filmmaking that gets a purist excited.

Gerwig’s pivot from the neon hyper-reality of Barbie to the snow-covered, spiritual weight of C.S. Lewis’s world is one of the most fascinating development paths in modern Hollywood. She isn't just making a kids' movie; she’s exploring the "subjective enjoyment" of childhood wonder through a lens of high-fidelity craft.

The report states that the "Factor X" of her Narnia will be the use of practical creature effects and miniature work, a direct nod to the lineage of fantasy filmmaking that existed before the digital takeover. It’s a move that values the texture of the world—the feeling of the fur, the cold of the snow—over the convenience of the edit suite. In an era of "content," Gerwig is trying to make a film.

While the project is still a way off, the commitment to a "handcrafted" Narnia is the best news the fantasy genre has had in years. It proves that even the biggest streaming platforms are beginning to realize that "deliciously real" beats "digitally perfect" every single time.