″‘Child,’ said the Lion, ‘I am telling you your story, not hers. No one is told any story but their own.’” (Aslan)

The culture wars are sometimes rather childish and remind me of little children throwing water balloons at each other and then crying when one hits them in the face. For the most part, these complaints and fights are best ignored. But DON’T MESS with this childhood classic.

I loved Narnia as a kid, and I still love it. I enjoyed the screen adaptation 20 years ago and have waited to see the final three books made into film. Netflix is planning to make six Narnia movies, one for each of the books. Excellent! I can’t wait…except what the?

Aslan has become a woman, or at least that’s the breaking news. Netflix is currently in discussions with Meryl Streep about playing the role of Aslan in The Magician’s Nephew. Streep is a remarkable and versatile actress, but there is a tiny, winy issue here: Aslan is male. Exchanging the baritone for the alto not only sounds odd, but changes the melodic of the entire story.

Part of me suspects that Netflix’s marketing department is using this as a test balloon, to see what they can get away with.

Last year, I watched Ridley Scott’s ‘epic’ Napoleon. It was 3 hours that I’ll never get back. Many a historian went in search of a Napoleonic cannon to aim at the big screen, as Scott massacred history. Movies always take liberties with stories, both fact and fiction. Turning Aslan into a female character isn’t quite the same as butchering the Battle of Waterloo. Yes, Narnia is fiction, so why does it matter at all? 

For starters, there is messing with authorial intent. Change the character, and one who also happens to be the main figure and hero of the series, and you change the entire story. 

Let’s change Oliver Cromwell to Olivia! Abraham Lincoln shall now be known as Alice Lincoln.  Why shouldn’t Florence Nightingale become Fred? 

Harry Potter should be Harriet, and Elizabeth Bennet shall be called Eddie and wear a moustache and mullet. 

Let’s reverse engineer The Handmaid’s Tale so that it is men and not women who are subjected to tyranny. 

Because it doesn’t make sense.  You ruin the story.

Also, it’s bad taste and carries all the creative juices of a failing first year arts student who has woken up and realised they’d be better off as an engineer!

It’s interesting to see how cultural values play out in mainstream film and music. There is a clash of ideals that they can’t reconcile. For example, one of today’s axioms is gender fluidity. Gender can change and morph, and shift more often than the tide in Port Phillip Bay. And yet, the worst heresy we can commit today is to misgender somebody. Which is it? Is gender sacrosanct or meaningless? (asking on behalf of women athletes everywhere!)

If Narnia was only fiction, I suspect many would muttter but put up with screwing up a great story. But as we know, C.S. Lewis was doing something more with these books; Narnia is a work of allegory. Narnia is theology through story. 

“this signifies that Aslan will be our good lord, whether he means us to live or die. And all’s one, for that. Now, by my counsel, we shall all kneel and kiss his likeness, and then all shake hands one with another, as true friends that may shortly be parted.”

Aslan is famously an allegorical representation of Jesus Christ. The man, the power, the justice and the gentleness, the atoning death and the resurrection are depicted by this character, Aslan. 

By turning Aslan into a lioness, he loses more than a mane. You’ve upended C.S. Lewis’ message of Narnia.

The thing is, Jesus was and is a man. He is the Son of God. He is the second Adam. He is a King. All these themes run through Narnia with cause and design. 

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5)

We don’t mess with Jesus and the eternal persons of the Trinity. I mean, people do, but they shouldn’t. Again, to preach the culture, isn’t misgendering someone paramount to public denouncement?

Jesus seems like an easy target. No, I’m not getting all anxy and angry. Jesus had a particularly wonderful way of responding to those who mocked him on the cross: he forgave and loved. The point is more about ‘live and die by the gender gospel’ that pop culture is at the forefront of hypocrisy. Try this gender swapping from religious figures outside Christianity and see how well that goes!

Apart from ruining one of the great children’s books, Netflix is in danger of playing with The Greatest Story. Who is the likely target audience? Those who know and read Narnia as children, and who now read the books to their children. Are they more or less likely to pay money to watch Aslan emasculated? 

If indeed Meryl Streep is a Netflix test balloon, this test balloon is made from lead! Let’s see what Greta Gerwig and Netflix decide to do. 

BTW,  Reepicheep is standing on the side petitioning to be made into a stallion, as the White Witch demands a colour change into something less colonial. And the Hag is refusing the role until she’s made into Barbie!

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Correction: I mentioned Disney at one point when it should be Netflix