There are few fantasy worlds with quite the cultural afterlife of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia. More than seven decades after Lewis first opened the door to the magical realm, Greta Gerwig is preparing to take audiences back through it. 

Starting this new cinematic chapter with The Magician's Nephew, published sixth but set before The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Gerwig is seemingly planning for the story to reach back to the very foundations of Lewis’ mythology. Keeping that spirit up, now, one of the story's oldest figures, Aslan has a very different voice waiting for him; that of Meryl Streep's. 

Empire has confirmed Meryl Streep as the voice of Aslan in its world-exclusive first look at Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, putting an end to months of speculation surrounding the Oscar winner’s involvement. The reveal arrives alongside the first images of Greta Gerwig’s Aslan, whose heterochromic eyes and red-striped face give the Great Lion a markedly different visual identity.

For Streep, the casting carries a generational weight. Aslan has previously been voiced across different Narnia adaptations by performers including Stephen Thorne, Ronald Pickup and David Suchet, while Liam Neeson became the defining cinematic voice for the character in the 2005–2010 film trilogy. Streep now becomes the first woman to voice the character on screen, giving Gerwig’s version an entirely new vocal identity.

Gerwig’s film, slated for a February 2027 theatrical release, stars newcomers David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell, with Emma Mackey. Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds, Daniel Craig, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Denise Gough and Susan Wokoma also join the ensemble alongside Streep, whose casting Empire just confirmed. 

As for Aslan, he is no ordinary resident of Narnia. The Great Lion stands at the heart of Lewis’ mythology, carrying an almost mythic authority over the world and its inhabitants. In The Magician’s Nephew, that significance is stretched back to Narnia’s very creation.

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Further behind the scenes, finding the right Aslan was less about filling a familiar throne and more about finding new means of enchantment, this time. 

The combination that ultimately led Greta Gerwig toward Meryl Streep was of someone whose decades of acting experience were not enough by themselves. Gerwig was looking for an actor who could make wisdom and wonder coexist in the same performance.

“I wanted someone who was profound but not pretentious, who had gravitas but not morose self-seriousness,” Gerwig told Empire.

“Someone who could communicate depth and pathos as well as joy and delight," she explained. 

The director also wanted someone “older than 70,” specifically seeking “a wisdom of experience” alongside “the capacity of fresh wonder, like a child.” And then came the simplest requirement: “to be one of the greatest actors to ever do it.”

For a character who literally sings Narnia into existence, Gerwig’s choice of voice therefore begins to sound rather deliberate. Streep is not merely entering the wardrobe. She is being asked to give the world on the other side its voice.

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Are you excited to hear Meryl Streep sing through Aslan? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.