A familiar figure, a new voice: Meryl Streep’s Aslan stirs gender debate over Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’

The public hasn’t viewed a single frame yet from director Greta Gerwig’s movie adaptation from the classic children’s book series, “The Chronicles of Narnia,” but a casting decision is already generating outrage from many conservative Christian commentators. They’re distressed by news that a female actor — the Oscar-winning Meryl Streep — will be voicing the role of Aslan the lion in “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew.” Aslan is considered a literary representation of Jesus Christ in the seven Narnia books by British Christian author C.S. The books depict the lion as male, with a glorious mane.

Filmmakers routinely take license in adapting books — compressing timelines, combining characters and more. Gerwig herself is resetting “The Magician’s Nephew” from around 1900 to the 1950s. The casting of Streep doesn’t necessarily mean that Aslan will be depicted as female.

But to conservative Christian critics, even the possibility of portraying a divine Christ figure as anything but male goes beyond artistic license. They deem it an attack on their faith, noting that the Bible and ancient creeds speak of God the Father and Jesus as the Son of God. “This is a well-known ploy of the enemies of God, to subvert and destroy symbols of Christianity in an effort to win a war of attrition for the heart of the culture,” wrote Seth Udinsky in a column for the Christian Post, an evangelical news website.

He contended that Gerwig is turning Aslan “transgender,” citing a newly released photo from the movie’s promoters, depicting the lion with rainbow-tinted whiskers. Similar comments, and rebuttals, appear in numerous replies to Netflix’s posting about the casting on Instagram. Some Lewis scholars and aficionados are taking a wait-and-see approach.

The Netflix production is scheduled for theatrical release in February. Kat Coffin, a New York-based writer and scholar of Lewis, said she has questions about the casting decision but added: “I am far more disturbed by the people who are violently opposed and angry at the idea that the incarnation of God could be anything even hinted toward feminine.” Gerwig wanted a ‘profound but not pretentious’ voice Gerwig, in public statements, hasn’t addressed the gender question directly, but did say she saw Streep as one of the few actors who could meet her criteria for Aslan’s voice. The books depict the lion as male, with a glorious mane.Filmmakers routinely take license in adapting books — compressing timelines, combining characters and more.