Meryl Streep’s casting as Aslan in Greta Gerwig’s new Narnia movie has ignited a fierce backlash, with critics accusing the director of “profaning Christ” by giving the beloved lion the voice of a “queen.”
For generations of readers, Aslan has been far more than a magnificent fictional character in C.S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia.” Powerful, loving and untameable, he watches over the magical world while repeatedly guiding its inhabitants through battles between good and evil.
And for some people, his religious significance runs even deeper.
Lewis, a devout Anglican, rejected the idea that his seven-book series was simply a Christian “allegory.” Instead, he described the religious element as a “supposition,” imagining “what might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia.”
That distinction is particularly important with Aslan. Lewis conceived the male lion as an incarnation of Christ within his fictional universe, with the character sacrificing his life to save Edmund in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” before rising from the dead.
In “The Magician’s Nephew,” the book Gerwig is now adapting for Netflix, Aslan also serves as Narnia’s creator, singing the world and its creatures into existence.
That history has made Gerwig’s decision to give Aslan a female voice especially controversial among some longtime fans of Lewis’ fantasy novels.
‘Profound but not pretentious’
Previous screen adaptations kept Aslan male, with Liam Neeson providing his unmistakable voice across the three Narnia movies released between 2005 and 2010.
Gerwig, however, had something different in mind when choosing the voice for her reported $280 million adaptation.
Speaking to Empire, the Barbie director explained that she was searching for an actor who could embody Aslan’s enormous presence without losing his warmth.
“I wanted someone who was profound but not pretentious, who had gravitas but not morose self-seriousness. Someone who could communicate depth and pathos as well as joy and delight,” Gerwig said.
“I wanted someone who was older than 70, so there was a wisdom of experience, but who also had the capacity of fresh wonder, like a child. And also, to be one of the greatest actors to ever do it. That list is not a long one,” she added.
‘He’s a king, not a queen’
Her choice reunites Gerwig with Meryl Streep, seven years after the actor starred in her 2019 adaptation of Little Women.
Streep, 77, has spent nearly five decades in Hollywood, winning three Academy Awards for Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady.
Her casting as Aslan, a character both compassionate and terrifying in the books, has struck a nerve among some of Lewis’s Christian fans, who argue that giving the majestic lion a female voice crosses a line.
Texas preacher David Fairchild argued that Lewis “explicitly conceived of Aslan as what Christ might be like if the Son of God entered a world like Narnia.”
“Giving Aslan a female voice isn’t daring or profound or some brilliant act of creative genius – it’s an act of creative vandalism,” Fairchild ranted in a post shared on X.
Gerwig has also put her own visual stamp on Aslan, reportedly drawing inspiration from David Bowie with heterochromic eyes and a red stripe across his face.
“Aslan isn’t some generic figure with an interchangeable identity. He’s male. Lewis wrote him as male. He’s repeatedly called ‘he.’ He’s a king, not a queen. He’s the Son of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea,” Fairchild said, adding that Gerwig’s adaption is “ideological slop.”
Evangelical influencer Jackie Chea also accused Gerwig of trying to “turn Jesus into a feminist statement,” claiming the director “favours a pagan, mother-based view of religion.”
‘Ruined by the orcs of the Era of Woke’
Then came the reaction from fans, where the criticism became even more heated.
“It doesn’t even make sense why a MALE LION would sound like Meryl Streep! It’s ridiculous!” one person wrote in the comment section of Empire’s X post.
A second took the religious argument considerably further, writing, “So Aslan, the male lion C.S. Lewis wrote in as the metaphorical representation of God, is being played by a woman. They want to make God trans. Run as far away from Hollywood as you can.”
“Is there anything left out there that’s not been, isn’t and will not be ruined by the orcs of the Era of Woke?” a third penned.
But not everyone shared the outrage over Gerwig’s decision.
“All you butthurt folks would spontaneously combust if you were sent back to Shakespeare’s time and saw who played Juliet in that plays first performance,” another shared, defending the casting choice by referencing Elizabethan England, when women were barred from performing on the public stage and female roles were played by men and boys.
What do you think about Meryl Streep voicing Aslan? Does changing the beloved lion’s voice cross a line, or are critics taking it too far? Please let us know your thoughts and then share this story so we can get the conversation started!
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