Netflix,
When I heard you had acquired the rights to The Chronicles of Narnia, my heart lept for joy. Like many children who grew up reading, this story has enchanted me for pretty much all my years from childhood to now as an adult. CS Lewis's expert storytelling helped my imagination come alive in ways no other story could. I used to aspire to be Lucy Pevensie with her child-like wonder, innocence, and her undying faith in the lion Aslan. I loved the relationships between all the characters and Aslan, for that matter. He was wise, brave, caring, and, of course, as fierce as any lion should be. He's the heart of the story and one of the best metaphors for Jesus Christ I've ever seen in a story.
My first introduction to Narnia was the movie "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." I was a bit too young when the Disney film came out to fully understand the faith behind the story, but once my mom explained it to me, I was over-the-moon excited. There was a story with excellent fantasy elements and with a Gospel message in it? I thought that was beautiful! It was so amazing to me that there may be someone out there who fell in love with Narnia just like I did who could learn about Jesus' love and forgiveness through this story.
When I discovered the series was based on books, I was even more excited. I was a total bookworm as a child, and I was so ecstatic to dive into Narnia more. What I found was something absolutely wonderful. There were kings and queens who were once ordinary people, talking beavers who were somehow the smartest and wisest characters in the whole story, boys who could turn into dragons and find redemption in the process, and the promise of Heaven to anyone who believed in Narnia and remained a friend of it.
Now, as an adult, I find myself still inspired by these stories, and I realize just how much these stories affected my faith even today. CS Lewis wrote these stories in a way that a person could get sucked into and transported to an entirely new world and learn more about faith along the way.
And now that I know you're making a series and films about Narnia, I am asking- no, I am begging- you to keep the faith aspect of the story of Narnia at the center of it all. That's where its true heart comes from. If it weren't for the faith and Christian undertones in the story, the story wouldn't be nearly as special. The Christian message offers so much hope to people and helps them know that if these characters could find redemption, so could they.
Possibly the best example of this is Edmund Pevensie. He's a pain to everyone at the beginning of the story, and he even sells his siblings out to the White Witch for some candy. He's just a rotten little kid, and to be honest, at the beginning of the story, I really didn't like his character at all. That is until Aslan enters the picture and everything changes. What follows is a beautiful retelling of Jesus dying for the sins of the world. Aslan takes Edmund's place on the Stone Table after he betrayed his siblings and was sentenced to death. This is one of the best examples of Christianity and makes the story of Narnia that much more beautiful.
The faith elements of Narnia are what makes the story so amazing and special. It was so important to Lewis that the Gospel be taught through these books, so I seriously hope you will not take out the Christianity of your new series. Faith is the most central part of Narnia, it has helped me shape my faith throughout my entire life, and I seriously hope you will create an adaptation which both tells the story well and recognizes God in all parts of it.
