Though Disney launched them in 2005 with great fanfare, The Chronicles Of Narnia films haven’t quite taken off the way all involved might have hoped. Indeed, the Mouse House ended its involvement with the franchise after the second film, Prince Caspian, and when 2010’s **The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader **didn’t make the sort of box office return that 20th Century Fox and Walden Media were aiming for, it seemed to sound the death knell for Aslan and co. Yet as readers of the books know, he’s a lion who thrives on resurrection and now the C.S. Lewis Company has struck up a partnership with veteran producer Mark Gordon to bring The Silver Chair to screens.
The book finds Eustace (played in Dawn Treader by Will Poulter) and classmate Jill Pole sent to Narnia by Aslan on a mission to help the now-elderly King Caspian (who we met in Prince Caspian in the form of Ben Barnes) find his missing son. It’s set years (in Narnia time, at least) after Dawn Treader. Eustace and Jill find a much-changed, much-darker Narnia, and have to somehow restore the missing Prince.
“Like many readers, both young and old, I am a huge fan of C.S. Lewis’s beautiful and allegorical world of Narnia,” Gordon said in a statement discovered in a secret wardrobe chamber by The Wrap. “These fantasy stories inspire real-world passion among millions of devoted fans around the world. As we prepare to bring the next book to life, we are humbled and excited to contribute to the outstanding legacy of Narnia.”
Given that the first three Narnia films actually ended up with a combined $1.6 billion in earnings, it’s perhaps not that surprising that the Lewis company would keep trying with the series. Gordon and company’s first task will be to find a writer to start developing a script, so it’ll likely be at least a couple of years before Aslan roars again.