Emma Mackey To Play The White Witch in Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ Adaptation

The White Witch in Greta Gerwig’s next ‘Narnia’ adaptation will be played by Emma Mackey.  The main antagonist of the movie, played by Mackey, who is well-known for her part in ‘Sex Education’, was first portrayed by Tilda Swinton in the 2005 movie ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’.

When Mackey enters the magical kingdom of Narnia, she will join Meryl Streep, who is in talks to play Aslan, the wise, talking lion who protects and guides the human children.

 After working with Gerwig on the 2024 movie ‘Barbie’, this is Mackey’s second project with her.  The sixth book in C.S. Lewis’s renowned series, ‘The Magician’s Nephew’, is being adapted by Gerwig, who also created the script and is directing the upcoming ‘Narnia’ movie.

Image Courtesy: Emma Mackey/ Instagram

Starting on Thanksgiving Day 2026, the movie will have a brief two-week run in theatres before making its OTT premiere around Christmas 2026.  After OTT announced in 2018 that it would be creating new programs and movies based on the popular book series, Greta Gerwig agreed to direct and adapt ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ for the streaming service in 2020. However, because the idea is still in its early phases of development, details are still limited.

 Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer of an OTT, highlighted the enduring appeal of characters like Aslan and expressed excitement about delivering the cherished ‘Narnia’ stories to a global audience.  Gerwig’s participation in this production follows her triumph with ‘Barbie’, which made over $1.44 billion worldwide and became Warner Bros.’ highest-grossing movie.

–Farheen Ali