Aslan Casting Rumor
An Aslan casting rumor first appeared 48 hours ago and has been gaining significant traction online. At this point, there are no corroborating sources.
Our investigation is ongoing. We will report back as soon as possible.
by Glumpuddle · April 2, 2025
Thank you.
Do you think there is a possibility she could be voicing a singing part when Aslan is creating Narnia? They could have multiple people’s voices used for that.
I have no issue with this from a theological perspective, but I do from a character perspective. The image of a male lion is intertwined in Narnian culture through iconography, language, and more.
However, if this is true, I will appreciate the creativity and vision for what it is. Gerwig is undoubtably a talented filmmaker. I would rather an excellent film that I disagree with than a milquetoast attempt at cashing in.
Thanks! I’m really looking forward to some information or even speculation. I can’t stand the thought of Aslan being female! If He is female in The Magician’s Nephew He will have to be female for the rest of the series as well. The franchise will be doomed from the start!
You do have to give it to Greta’s publicists, they vociferously deny Barbie sequel rumors within minutes of publication but will remain silent and gladly watch the internet burn for days as an 9 figure property is placed smack-dab in the middle of the culture wars several months before production with rumors from a single source
I hate it here
Maybe Aslan will be male, but voiced by a female actor. That seems more likely than a gender swap.
This article was published in MSM on April 1st, yes?
And with that little gem, (hoping it’s April Fool’s), Greta may have just officially lost me.
A female Aslan is blasphemous. Aslan isn’t just some type of Christ symbol(like Aragorn in LOTR) but is literally meant to be Jesus in a fictional setting. It’s just straight up offensive
This gender swap couldn’t botter me less. I honestly love these characters for their essence, not their gender.
Merryl Streep is a great actress and she would undoubtedly do an excellent job if she is really cast as Aslan. I’d rather have a great movie with the characters all swapped but the story remaining true to it’s essence than to have a mediocre movie with no love in it’s making.
A female Aslan isn’t disrespectful to the image of Jesus. First, because it’s a fictional character. Second, although God is always represented in a male form, he created both man and woman at his image. So, being portrayed as a female shouldn’t make him less godly.
Had God sent to earth a daughter instead of a son, I wonder if some people would still believe…
A female voice portraying a male character doesn’t bother me as much, but if Aslan were to be changed into a female lion, my excitement and anticipation for the project would drop significantly.
Of course, in the end, the most important thing is making a great film that hopefully honors the book and its characters. While I still believe it’s possible for Gerwig to do well with a female Aslan, I’m not confident it would be executed well.
I’m not convinced this rumor is true, but it sucks that we’ll have to live with its fallout until an official casting announcement is made.
I think the books are already incredibly difficult to adapt due to the unique style of world building that runs contrary to contemporary fantasy and even story structure. The films don’t have climactic battles in each volume in the same way as Harry Potter/LOTR/GOT and the characters are written in very difficult way to adapt to film. Plus the fact there are talking animals, CGI/puppetry!?!……They are already too many complex problems to solve, the last thing u need is anything that distracts from the work of thousands and the enduring beauty of the books.
No one has been cast, all these are rumors
@Impending Doom, you say that now, but I can’t imagine watching the film(s) with a visually male lion and an obviously female voice coming from him and thinking, “Yeah this works.” I think it’d either come across as deliberate parody (in which case few would be able to take Aslan seriously) or just plain old weird.
The fact that no major film sites are running with this indicates it’s not credible. But if this is true, what a wild precedent to set for the remaining six films. I know Greta is signed on for two, but the remaining five are expected to maintain this massive departure as well? Nevermind how such a move would alienate the majority of the built-in fanbase. An unforced error, I think.
It could be a prank, but I did observe that the report on Nexus Point News is dated two days ago, March 31. I would have thought a prank would be posted April 1st.
Regardless, I find it hard to believe that even Gerwig would do something so colossally ill-advised.
“I would rather an excellent film that I disagree with than a milquetoast attempt at cashing in.“ Marcus, I wish more people reasoned like you! I couldn’t agree more.
And listen, while this sounds like an unfounded rumor, I don’t think it will be impossible. Meryl has a certain gravitas to her voice, and if they digitally lowered her pitch it would be an interesting take. Possibly not female Aslan, but a genderless one. Even the idea of Aslan’s voice changing throughout the films/times we see him is interesting.
I don’t know about everyone, but for me the mere idea of a Narnia movie that actually makes me think sounds extremely exciting.
I’m gonna be real honest in this portray for this franchise Aslan is widely interpreted as a symbolic representation of Jesus Christ. So would be wise to have a male’s voice for him.
I like the idea of using multiple actors/actresses to create one unique voice for Aslan. That’s something I can get behind!
If this isn’t April fools, Greta Gerwig has lost me.
Don’t make Aslan a female, he’s the central figure in these books. I’m a progressive but I absolutely love these books and I’m hoping they just stick with getting them right, as opposed to trying to make them fit a cultural narrative.
Don’t make Aslan a female, he’s the central figure in these books. [REMOVED BY MODERATOR] I absolutely love these books and I’m hoping they just stick with getting them right, as opposed to trying to make them fit a cultural narrative.
I miss the days when fans were worried about a Susan & Caspian romances, and White Witch cameos.
Know your audience. Making Aslan female would lose the people who are most likely to support the series.
It has to be an April fools joke! (For a moment I thought it would be cool if they cast her as Aunt Letty, but I get the impression that Letty is middle-aged in the book.)
It may not be an April Fool’s day joke. It may just be a random idea that someone thought of and shared on a site somewhere.
Aslan cannot be anything other than a male lion with a big mane. As someone said yesterday, the whole series depends on this.
What we are waiting to hear about is the voicing of the animated lion character in the movie. In spite of a mature, rich and deep voice, Streep (one of my favourite actors) still has an obviously female voice.
There are lots of male actors being suggested. Do not despair!
This seems to be originating with somewhat questionable news sites that other outlets are picking up and citing. I’m guessing it’s either April Fools or a run-of-the-mill false rumor. If true, I’d take it as the first of many bad signs.
That said, I’m SLIGHTLY open to the idea of pitching her voice deeper if this really has to be. Perhaps the distortion would add a somewhat non-human quality to the voice and character.
I taking the impression that this is an April Fool’ Joke, which hopefully doesn’t end up coming true (like what happened with the Caspian-Susan romance in the Walden’s PC and the White Witch making an appearance in Walden’s VDT).
While I do think Meryl Streep is a good actress, I would still prefer Aslan to be voiced by a man. That’s just a personal preference. Then of course, there’s the importance of getting Aslan right, especially for those of us who know who he actually is in our world.
If this wasn’t true, they’d have denied it by now. And I have no doubts it’s true (well, it might not be Streep but it will be an actress). It’s just, do you really think Gerwig will be able to tolerate the fact that a male-presenting entity is the ultimate, objective moral standard in the story? While a female-presenting entity is the epitomy of evil? She’ll ruin the movie financially if she has to but she won’t stand something like that. That’s probably the main reason she wanted to adapt Narnia. I know she has said very nice things about the books and I kinda believed her back then but well…
No way in a million years will Greta let Aslan be masculine: her whole life is leading up to this. Face it friends, Narnia now belongs to “Experiment House”.
Who does she want to cater to? Even women for the most part would hate a female Aslan. So who does she do it for? Only for herself, it seems, with complete and utter disregard for the audience.
This hasn’t been confirmed by anybody linked to the production. We don’t know if it is true. I am going to wait until I know it is true before reacting. And I would still want to see the movie to see what she does with the story.
It really is quite odd that news on Meryl Streep, a 21 time Oscar nominee starring in a role traditionally played by men in a 200 million dollar plus film, her first film appearance in over 5 years from 4 time Oscar nominee Greta after directing WB’s highest grossing film has not been picked up by the trades. No verification? No corroboration ? Odd !?!
Something doesn’t smell right
Probably Jeff Sneider might touch on it next Hot Mic on the John. Rocha podcast
Personally growing up with Disney version and reading the books I have always seen Aslan with kind but strong voice just like the Disney adaptation. I think when casting Netflix should really keep in mind the fans and history of Narnia before anything else with also possibly hiring someone who knows a lot about the Narnia universe.
Well DEADLINE seems to have confirmed that “they are in talks but no offer has been made”
This has definitely left a bitter taste in my mouth, not sure anything could redeem it, pun not intended
The thing I don’t hear anyone talking about is the role of the CS Lewis Company and Douglas Gresham in all this. We know Gresham is a Narnian purist, and we know he’d debate with Walden/Disney over pivotal biblical moments in the previous films. He’s also deeply involved with approving the stage play scrips the Logos Theatre does. Knowing that, I can’t imagine he’d allow it to go off the rails. I like the theories in above comments about blending voices for Aslan’s song. That I could be fine with. But it kind of sounds like some Netflix intern overheard something or saw a calendar invite, thought they had something that would really stir up the internet, and leaked it. Hoping that it all makes sense when things are actually confirmed—you just know the media is going to spin this all weird, even if there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for her Streep to be cast.
Kind of tragic that ten years ago, there wouldn’t have been any question over whether it was an April Fool’s joke. Now we’re so used to the absolutely insane takes studios have been doing with beloved IPs.
This will be a deal breaker for me. If Netflix does this they will never see a penny from me ever again.
Guys. Deadline just confirmed it, so i guess it’s the end of your investigation, as that pretty much settles it. I knew it was true from the very beginning (made too much sense) and told you so but so many people here were in denial.
I’m praying Meryl Steep won’t be Aslan’s voice. I can’t imagine Graham would agree with that. That is completely wrong. I was looking forward to Narnia and hopec Greta would make a good choice,but this is the worst choice for it. [REMOVED BY MODERATOR]… the movies will be a total blop
There is no way this is going to happen. I was sure it was an April Fool’s joke, but it might be a rumour turned into a publicity stunt. Surely Gerwig is not a complete moron. You would have to lack any semblance of self-awareness or concern for the material to “gender-swap” Aslan. I would not be surprised if this was any other intellectual property, but Narnia has always been overtly Christian to the point that it fails to gain much traction in the mainstream. In order to do this, Gerwig would have to be extremely ignorant of or blatantly disrespectful towards the source material, and she didn’t strike me as either of those. What about Douglas Gresham? I cannot see him allowing this to happen.
Whether it’s true or not, the backlash is kind of terrifying. The amount of people who are so angry at the idea of a woman voicing a male character is insane. Loads of characters like Horrid Henry and Bart Simpson are voiced by women too and that’s not a big deal. Aslan can still be a male lion. Sure, Aslan isn’t a woman, but he’s not a man either. He’s a lion!!!!! Gender doesn’t really come into it since that’s a human concept?
Mr. Pinky:
Yes, Aslan is a lion, but he’s also a MALE lion, which is the animal equivalent of a male human, and since Aslan can talk and think like a human it would be very disrespectful and weird to have Him voiced by a woman (unless the voice actor legitimately sounds like a male, which is unlikely).
Noelle Torgerson:
I do agree it makes more sense overall to have a male voice actor. But why would it be ‘disrespectful’ not to? Who knows, maybe talking lions don’t sound like human men in the wild. Who’s to say what a lion speaking English realistically sounds like…
If it’s actually a case of Aslan being completely changed to a female lion, I think that would be a different discussion as that would be to do with the books’ canon, etc, as many people have discussed, whereas if he’s still male, it’s just a case of casting (and as far as I know, that’s probably the case right now). What if they cast a male voice actor with a higher voice?
Little aside: in the BBC adaptations, Trufflehunter was actually changed to a female badger and played by women – not saying that’s necessarily the same thing as the miniseries wasn’t all that big and it’s not such a major character but still interesting 🙂