Disney has released several projects in all these years but one project that has been kind of ignored despite being a box-office hit is ‘The Chronicles of Narnia‘ film franchise. It was an adaptation of novels of the same name written by C.S. Lewis.
All three films released between 2005 and 2010 were able to receive a positive response. Although the third film’s reception was lower compared to the first two, it was able to accumulate a huge fanbase in the last few years. However, a fourth film did not release in all these years and there were reports that it has been canceled and a few other claimed that it was under development.
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The Plans After ‘The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of Dawn Treader’
The producers initially planned to adapt ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ but it could not materialize because co-producer, Walden Media, lost the rights to the film in 2011. The C.S. Lewis Company was able to sign a new deal with The Mark Gordon Company for the adaptation of ‘The Silver Chair’ and planned to follow the order in which the books were published.
There were no updates on the development but there was a ray of hope when Sony decided to produce the film in 2016. However, the actors who played the lead roles in the first three films had aged by then and an idea for a reboot was eventually proposed. Although Joe Johnston was hired to helm the film, he disclosed at the time that he will retire as a director, marking ‘Narnia 4’ as his final film.
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Can Audiences Expect A Reboot?
As mentioned earlier, Joe Johnston was brought in as the director for the film but the makers did not offer any updates after that. Netflix eventually obtained the rights to the novels in 2018 and was reportedly trying to bring a series based on the same. Matthew Aldrich was reported to the showrunner but for now, audiences should possibly get hold of the excitement as Netflix has not mentioned anything about what has been going on with the project in all these days.
Moreover, it is possible that the makers decided to not move forward with a fourth film. The reason is clearly in front of everyone. The first film was a box office success and although the second film’s result was the same, the results were disappointing compared to the first film and it was also criticized for the mature themes and dark tone.
When the third film was confirmed, the director was replaced with Michael Apted instead of Andrew Adamson. It was also distributed by 20th Century Fox instead of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The above-mentioned factors have possibly contributed to the mixed reception and box office collections of the third film and this might have led to questions regarding the future of the franchise.
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