What New In Fantasy: Movies and TV for Kids, Teens, and, well, Me

One rainy November day in upstate New York, my dad read the entirety of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe aloud to me, my sister, and my mom, while we all worked on craft projects. That’s probably the very best way to experience the book, but I also loved the 80s BBC version of it. It had some truly laughable special effects, and fairly handsome 15-year-old Peter, just the thing to spark a crush in 11-year-old me. And will Barbara Kellerman’s Snow Queen ever be equaled?

Now Netflix and Entertainment One have announced plans to develop a new series of films based on the Chronicles of Narnia.

Under the terms of a multi-year deal between Netflix and The C.S. Lewis Company, Netflix will develop classic stories from across the Narnia universe into series and films for its members worldwide. All series and films produced through the deal will be Netflix productions, with Mark Gordon of Entertainment One (eOne) alongside Douglas Gresham and Vincent Sieber serving as executive producers for series and as producers for features. In total the Narnia books have sold more than 100 million copies and been translated in more than 47 languages worldwide. The deal marks the first time that rights to the entire seven books of the Narnia universe have been held by the same company.

I can’t wait to see how they do The Magician’s Nephew, my favorite of all the books.

Speaking of witches, there’s a new trailer for The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a more horror-infused version of Sabrina the Teenaged Witch, dropping on Netflix on October 26.

It seems to have a mix of Riverdale’s camp and pseudo-50s aesthetic (not surprising, given they share an executive producer), as well as the Melissa Joan Hart sitcom’s humor, and a good helping of traditional horror movie imagery. And did I see a black cat snarl in the trailer? I sure hope that means we get some sassy, deadpan Salem.

Another exciting trailer dropped recently, for the new Mary Poppins film, a sequel to original musical movie (1964), and still featuring Dick Van Dyke, now 92 years old. What a treasure he is and how lucky we are to have him:

Emily Blunt plays a Mary Poppins who appears a little more deadpan, though no less delightful than Julie Andrews was in the original, and Lin Manuel Miranda plays an apprentice chimneysweep. From the trailer, it looks as though it will mostly retread the original movie, but starting from such a good place, that can’t be bad. Oh, and Dick Van Dyke can still dance. That might be worth the price of admission alone.

It’s been in development forever, and now The Wheel of Time TV series finally has a showrunner and production studio. Rafe Judkins, formerly of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, has been tapped as showrunner and executive producer for the Sony Pictures adaption.

What are you looking forward to in fantasy movies and TV?