Murmurings are bubbling up from the witch’s cauldron known as the Hollywood rumor mill today, as Deadline reports that Daniel Craig is allegedly in talks for a starring role in Greta Gerwig’s Netflix film adaptation of The Chronicles Of Narnia. There’s no word yet on which part Craig would play if he hopped aboard the high-profile project, but we’d be lion if we said we didn’t have at least half a guess. (Sorry.)
The fact is, there just aren’t that many parts for adult men in The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe: You’re either voicing the Liam Neeson lion, playing the old guy who owns the wardrobe, or asking an entire generation to contemplate the site of aging Bond Dad Bod Mr. Tumnus. Craig, obviously, has the requisite gravitas to tackle Aslan—and the undercurrent of anger he’s often capable of marshalling will help sell the whole “Not a tame lion” thing—but it also feels like a pretty safe role for a guy who’s spent the last several years taking some very odd jobs. (That being said, he’s also a guy who seems at least partially motivated by getting to work with great directors, so we can see him wanting to sign on with Gerwig.)
Narnia represents Netflix’s latest effort to assert to the wider Hollywood that it doesn’t just generate the swiftly forgotten crud that spaces out the good stuff on A-list actor’s resumés: The streamer is throwing a lot of resources at the project, including negotiating, at Gerwig’s insistence, a deal for the movie to run in IMAX theaters. As to what the director herself is up to with the film—as she flexes those Barbie blank check muscles—Aslan himself only knows: Previous rumors have suggested that she’s looking pretty far afield for some of her casting choices, including the possibility that she might be eyeing Charli XCX for the pivotal role of the sinister White Witch.
