DVDizzy Forum

I thought "The Magician's Nephew" was the first book in the series?

and if so, why make the movies starting with the second book?

Magician's Nephew IS the first in the series, a fact that people seem to overlook most of the time.

I guess they will start with LWW simply because it is the most popular in the series, and most people are introduced to the series through that book.

It is a shame though - I thought someone would finally get it right.

Actually I heard that LWW was the first book C.S. Lewis wrote, and then after that he wrote the prequel, The Magician's Nephew.

So technically, they got it right.

Although the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first book published, the Magician's Nephew is the first book in series chronologically. Today, many boxsets follow the chronology over publishing date. I prefer chronology. I suppose the Magician's Nephew could be treated as a prequel, a very good movie prequel.

I wonder what the second movie will be? Perhaps, the Horse and His By will get the nod?

thats confusing cuz my books sets (20 years ago) always started with LWW first, even though i understood the order of the stories once I read throught them all. Ive probably owned 5 or six different sets. I know these go quite a bit farther back though.

LWW was first published and then Lewis wrote a prequel to it being the Magician's Nephew. Chronilogically, Magician comes first then LWW, but most people read LWW first so that's why it's being made first. It's the more popular book, thus it will create more popularity in the "possible" series of movies instead of starting with Magician.

Yes. C.S. Lewis did write the LWW first and then the prequel. I'm pretty sure now anyone who has read this fourm now knows that But does anyone know when they are comming out or any pics or anything?

Hey,

You wanna pic? Head over here http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=19 and see an ad that was in several papers after Disney got the contract for distribution.

Yeah, I saw that ad. It made me drool. (well, almost )

I wish that Magician's Nephew was first, but I am SO glad that Disney will have distribution, maybe this will be a series that will save them! It makes me furious that Eisner let The Lord of the Rings go to New Line... and while every other big studio has a big series, Disney has ... what, Spy Kids?

Hook

That is a really cool ad. I hope disney does a great job on it.

Publishers always arrange this series in different ways. I'm a huge Narnia fan and have read the series about 20 times over.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is supposed to come first. It was written first. THEN comes The Magician's Nephew, which is a prequel to LWW and sheds new light on the story. It works in the same way that the Star Wars series does. People often make the mistake of readin the Magician's Nephew first (because publishers often arrange it this way), but you really lose a lot when you do this. Prequels are written after the first for a reason, there's a certain magical element that comes with them.

So Disney/Walden is taking the right course here.

-Aaron

The original order in which the series was written and published is:

1) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
2) Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
3) The Voyage of the <i>Dawn Treader</i>
4) The Silver Chair
5) The Horse and His Boy
6) The Magician's Nephew
7) The Last Battle

Since HarperCollins aqquired the publishing rights, they have re-ordered the series chronologically "according to the original intent of the author." (yeah, right.) Anyway, it now looks like this:

1) The Magician's Nephew
2) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3) The Horse and His Boy
4) Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
5) The Voyage of the <i>Dawn Treader</i>
6) The Silver Chair
7) The Last Battle

Personally, I think Walden Media made the right choice when deciding to start with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It's arguably the best, definately the most popular, and originally the first.

Walden Media has said (though I don't remember where or when they said it) that should The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe prove to be a success, they will film the other six books in the original order of publication.

A-men. And I should clarify that when I said "THEN" I didn't mean NEXT

-Aaron

It is interesting to read the books cronologicaly because then Magician's Nephew is like a retrospective look on the creation of Narnia.

I'm so freaking happy that Disney has bought the rights for this. I've always wanted Disney to do the Narnia books, and they finally will. For once, they've done something wonderfully and completely right. Like Aaron and Jake said, the books were written out of order and are meant to be read out of the order for the same reason the Star Wars films are out of order. When you view (or read) the prequel, you carry baggage with you from the original and you know what's going to happen, and that sets off a certain magical spark when you view (or read) the prequel. I applaud Walden Media for filming the books in the same order they were written, because in my opinion, that's how it should be (it bugs me to death that my Narnia books are numbered in chronological order rather than publication order). Judging from the fact that the ad says "Chronicles of Narnia" we can safely bet that Wardrobe will be the first in a series of films as opposed to being a sole film. Christmas 2005 can't come soon enough.

Beautifully stated, Disneykid. I hope this gets a big budget both for production and for marketing. I'm very pleased that it will be a holiday release.

-Aaron

A few years ago the BBC did a few of the books.

My wife got them on DVD but they were not very good.