Netflix’s ambitious return to the world of C. S. Lewis now has a face for its most infamous villain. The Hollywood Reporter confirms that British actress Emma Mackey—best known for her BAFTA-winning performance as Maeve Wiley on Netflix’s Sex Education and her recent turn opposite Margot Robbie in Barbie—will portray the White Witch, Jadis of Charn, in Greta Gerwig’s live-action adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew. The casting ends months of speculation and secures the first official player in what Netflix hopes will be a multi-film franchise.
Gerwig, a four-time Academy Award nominee, penned the screenplay and will step behind the camera this summer. Her involvement alone has generated intense interest, as her directorial résumé—Lady Bird, Little Women, and the billion-dollar hit Barbie—has proven she can balance character-driven storytelling with large-scale spectacle. Reuniting with Mackey, who appeared as one of Barbie’s confident contemporaries in the pink-splashed blockbuster, hints that Gerwig sees a potent mix of charisma and menace in the young actress—traits essential to Jadis, who annihilated her own world rather than surrender in battle.
The film will chronologically kick off Lewis’s seven-book saga, exploring how Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer stumble into the dying world of Charn, ring the enchanted bell, and awaken Jadis, inadvertently unleashing her malevolent ambition. Their adventures eventually lead to Narnia’s creation, Aslan’s first roar, and the planting of the fabled lamppost. By adapting The Magician’s Nephew first, Netflix can organically build the lore that culminates in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe—a strategy that differs from previous live-action cycles and gives audiences a fresh entry point.
Emma Mackey’s selection concludes what insiders describe as a spirited competition. Singer-songwriter Charli XCX and two-time Emmy nominee Margaret Qualley advanced deep into the process, but studio executives and Gerwig ultimately felt Mackey embodied the White Witch’s icy regality and latent fury. The actress’s upcoming slate underscores her breadth: she will headline Julia Ducournau’s body-horror thriller Alpha, star in James L. Brooks’s Ella McCay, and join Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega, and Samuel L. Jackson in an untitled J. J. Abrams project.
The supporting roster is still coming into focus, though high-profile names are circling major roles. Sources say Daniel Craig is the top choice for Andrew Ketterley, the morally dubious magician whose experiments send the children into other worlds. Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep, meanwhile, is in discussions to lend her voice to Aslan, the lion who represents divine authority in Narnia. Locking in such A-list talent would give Netflix the kind of prestige ensemble that streaming franchises rarely assemble out of the gate.
Production is scheduled to begin in late summer, utilizing soundstages in the United Kingdom and expansive location shoots in Eastern Europe to recreate Charn’s lifeless grandeur and Narnia’s primordial forests. Wētā Workshop is believed to be handling practical creature effects, while Industrial Light & Magic will supervise digital environments and Aslan’s photoreal fur.
Netflix plans a limited theatrical footprint—two weeks in IMAX and select premium formats—around Thanksgiving 2026, before the film drops globally on the service near Christmas Day. The hybrid rollout mirrors the streamer’s strategy for buzzy originals like Glass Onion, offering big-screen spectacle for early adopters and at-home convenience for its massive subscription base.
With Gerwig at the helm, Mackey wielding the Deplorable Word, and heavyweight names circling other iconic parts, this adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew is shaping up to be more than a reboot; it is the cornerstone of a new cinematic universe where Turkish delight, talking beasts, and cosmic stakes collide.