Led Zeppelin Said Yes to Greta Gerwig. Narnia Fans Are Still Deciding. Here Is What the First Magician's Nephew Trailer Shows.

On Tuesday morning, in the IMAX auditorium at AMC Lincoln Square in New York, Netflix and Stephen Colbert premiered the first trailer for Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew. It is set to "Stairway to Heaven," a song Led Zeppelin has spent decades keeping off movie screens. By Wednesday morning the YouTube trailer had passed 10 million views, according to What's on Netflix, and the comments had split into two camps that agree on almost nothing.

One viewer on X called it "the best trailer I've seen in years." Another called it "a bizarre, disastrous fever dream." Here is what the trailer actually shows, how Gerwig got the song, and why this teaser carries more weight than most: it is selling Netflix's first wide theatrical release, and Gerwig's first film since Barbie made $1.45 billion.

What the trailer shows

It opens on the carved wooden wardrobe, then drops into a gloomy London, where Digory Kirke (David McKenna) and Polly Plummer (Beatrice Campbell) creep through their connected attics, wondering whether Digory's Uncle Andrew is "really mad" or a magician. In his hidden, glowing study, Andrew (Daniel Craig) hands Digory a yellow ring, and the children land in the mossy Wood Between the Worlds.

From there it moves fast: the kids wake Emma Mackey's Jadis in a crumbling palace, Jadis rides a horse through London, a red sun hangs over a dying world, and a winged horse takes flight. It ends in the dark of space, where a star-flecked Aslan brings Narnia into existence. "Have you ever seen a world born?" the children are asked.

Also in the cast: Carey Mulligan as Digory's mother, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Frank, the cab driver who becomes Narnia's first king, Ciarán Hinds as the voice of the older Digory, and Meryl Streep as the voice of Aslan, Liam Neeson's role in the 2005 to 2010 films. Mackey's Jadis becomes the White Witch, Tilda Swinton's old part.

SlashFilm's Jeremy Smith noted that some of the effects still look unfinished, which is normal four months out, and was won over anyway: "this is how you sell a $200 million piece of epic fantasy." That figure is the film's reported budget.

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How Gerwig got "Stairway to Heaven"

Led Zeppelin's refusals are Hollywood lore. Cameron Crowe shot a scene for Almost Famous built around the song and cut it when the band balked. A Simpsons writer has said the show could not get the rights for "Bart Sells His Soul." TheWrap reports Stranger Things tried and failed too. What's on Netflix says this is the first time the band has licensed the song for a film.

Gerwig's method was simple: she met Robert Plant and Jimmy Page and showed them the movie. "They saw the heart and the story and the drama in it," she told Colbert. "So to me, this was a song that made sense to introduce the film to the world."

Why fans are split

The fans who love it point to the scale and to how much of the book is on screen. One said they recognized "just about every scene." Another admitted glam rock would not have been their pick for Narnia, "but okay you got me, I am now excited."

The complaints are about the look. The heavy CGI and space-rock palette drew Marvel comparisons, and "Narnia: Ragnarok" became the joke of the day. Some said nothing in it signals Narnia at all, and some objected to Streep as Aslan. The Hollywood Reporter summed up the range in a headline: from "Best in Years" to "Lost Its Soul to CGI."

The real test is February 12

Narnia was first set for a two-week IMAX run over Thanksgiving 2026, then Netflix at Christmas. On May 1, Netflix moved it to February 12, 2027, in IMAX and regular theaters worldwide. Reuters called it the streamer's first wide theatrical release, with more than 45 days exclusively in theaters. Netflix cited the series' broad appeal, and Deadline reported a cast injury had cost the shoot six weeks. The Thanksgiving IMAX slot went to David Fincher's The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in 2025 that going to theaters was "an outdated concept" for most people. While bidding for Warner Bros. this year, he told a Senate panel its films would stay "fully exclusive to theaters" for 45 days. Paramount won (here is what that merger means), so Narnia tests the promise on Netflix's own movie. AMC's Adam Aron pledged to "throw everything we have" behind it.

Puck's Matthew Belloni liked the trailer but said Netflix is "putting the cart before the horse" with franchise talk. The poster's tagline is "A Universe Begins," and Gerwig's 2023 deal covers two films.

The last Narnia movies shrank with every sequel

Netflix is betting a series can come back from a slide. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe arrived in 2005 on the fantasy wave that The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter built. Then every film made less and reviewed worse:

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005): $745 million worldwide, 76 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, an A+ CinemaScore.
• Prince Caspian (2008): $420 million, 66 percent.
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010): $416 million, 49 percent, released by Fox after Disney left over a budget dispute.

A Silver Chair film with Joe Johnston directing never got made, and Netflix signed its deal with the C.S. Lewis Company in 2018.

Why start with The Magician's Nephew

Lewis published it in 1955, sixth of the seven books, but it comes first in Narnia's history. It explains where everything in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe came from: the White Witch, the lamppost in the snowy wood, and the wardrobe itself, built from the wood of an apple tree Digory plants after his adventure. Digory grows up to be Professor Kirke, whose country house the Pevensie children explore. Casting Hinds as the older Digory suggests the film keeps that thread.

If it's in the heart, it can be huge, and it can be small, and both can be true.Greta Gerwig, at the trailer premiere

When you can see it

• February 10, 2027: IMAX and premium large format previews.
• February 12, 2027: Wide release in theaters worldwide, the Friday of Presidents' Day weekend.
• April 2, 2027: Streaming on Netflix, 49 days later.
• Right now: All three earlier films are streaming on Disney+, since Disney now owns all three.

That leaves four months to catch up. Rewatch the trilogy, rank it head to head on Shortlist against the fantasy you grew up on, and see whether Barbie tops Lady Bird on your Gerwig list. Our movie tier list guide shows how.

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