Normally, you wouldn’t expect the dredging up of childhood and/or religious trauma to be something worth getting excited over, but for better or worse, it’s already being singled out as one of the many reasons to start getting hyped for Greta Gerwig’s reboot of The Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix.
Of course, the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker is no stranger to dealing in hard-hitting issues thanks to a filmography that includes Frances Ha, Little Women, and Lady Bird, while even the upcoming Barbie is poised to tackle societal issues head-on through the lens of a frivolous blockbuster comedy.
To say that C.S. Lewis’ source material possesses Christian undertones would be an understatement, but that hasn’t prevented an entire generation of Netflix subscribers from either celebrating the fact they’re about to be put through the emotional wringer all over again, or preparing younger audiences with similar backgrounds for what’s to come.
Netflix isn’t known for taking massive risks when it comes to expensive original content, but then again, Gerwig isn’t exactly renowned for sugarcoating difficult themes, either. If she’s awarded the creative freedom to dive deep into the thematic nuances of The Chronicles of Narnia, then it’s destined to be an entirely different animal to the rather bland and cookie-cutter trilogy that was cut off the knees three installments into a seven-film plan with over $1.5 billion at the box office already in the bank.
As if internet culture couldn’t throw up any more surprises, heading back through that mystical passage into Narnia to stumble headlong into opening traumatic wounds is being seen as a positive, so go figure.