A decade or so after the genre petered out, we may be entering a young adult renaissance. The Hunger Games is getting a second wind with The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and the upcoming Sunrise on the Reaping. HBO is restarting the entire Harry Potter saga from scratch as a prestige TV series. Even Percy Jackson is enjoying a new lease of life thanks to a Disney+ series.
Netflix is betting big on this trend with an eight-movie plan to adapt C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, which was last seen as an unfinished Disney movie series. The new movies have already secured a popular director and a couple of stars, and now the cast is really coming together with a unique take on the series’ villain.
Emma Mackey will play Jadis the White Witch in Netflix’s Narnia movies.
Deadline reports that Emma Mackey has been cast as Jadis the White Witch, a role last played by Tilda Swinton in the 2000s movies. Mackey joins Daniel Craig as Uncle Andrew, while Meryl Streep is reportedly in talks to voice Aslan. At least two of the eight movies will be written and directed by Barbie’s Greta Gerwig, and the first film will get an IMAX release over Thanksgiving 2026.
Mackey is a good deal younger than the Jadis played by Swinton, but that’s for good reason. While Disney began its telling with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the first book published in the Narnia series, Netflix is apparently starting with The Magician’s Nephew, the first book chronologically. While Wardrobe follows four kids as they stumble into Narnia, The Magician’s Nephew follows two children as they witness Narnia’s very creation.
In The Magician’s Nephew, Jardis is a little younger and more manic. She even gets transported to Earth and wreaks havoc on London. That explains earlier rumors that pop star Charli XCX was in talks for the role: this is a much brattier version of the White Witch.
Netflix’s Jadis will be very different than Tilda Swinton’s portrayal.
While we now have a face to put to Jadis, there are still a lot of questions. Will Mackey play this role in all eight movies, or will she be recast for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe? How will the story change when audiences get to know this version of the Witch first? Hopefully, Netflix has some compelling answers, because they’ll have to fuel seven more movies after this one.
