Faith Driven Consumers regularly encounter brands that want our support without fully respecting the faith behind our choices.
Now Netflix has cast Meryl Streep to voice Aslan—the character C. S. Lewis imagined as Christ entering Narnia. That makes this about more than accepting a woman’s voice.
If Netflix gives Lewis’s male Christ figure a female voice, will that affect whether you watch?
The film has not been released, and we have not reviewed it. But the choices being announced already raise important questions.
Lewis did not describe Aslan as merely a symbol or one character in a simple allegory. He called Narnia a “supposal”: imagining what Christ Himself might be like if He entered another world—creating it, dying for it, rising again, and calling its people to follow Him. That makes Aslan’s identity central to Lewis’s evangelical purpose.
Giving this distinctly male Christ figure a woman’s voice raises legitimate questions about identity and whether Netflix’s adaptation will preserve what Lewis intended. CBN has also reported that Movieguide founder Dr. Ted Baehr, citing his close ties to C. S. Lewis’s family, said family members are “very upset” about the casting.
When Christian stories and imagery are used to build a global entertainment product while the Christians who treasure their meaning are left outside the conversation, it can feel less like faithful adaptation and more like cultural appropriation.
Faith Driven Consumer has stepped into conversations like this before. We engaged Paramount over Noah, applied our Faith-Friendly Film Review system to Exodus: Gods and Kings, and challenged Killing Jesus for diminishing Christ’s divinity. That history shows why engaging the faith audience early matters.
We are not asking anyone to reject a film they have not seen. We are asking Netflix to welcome the audience that has carried these stories for generations, invite Faith Driven Consumer and other Christian leaders to an advance screening, and hear our concerns before the final portrayal reaches families.
First, we need to hear from you:
Take the survey: Will Netflix’s treatment of Aslan affect whether you watch?
Source and background links
- Greta Gerwig explains casting Meryl Streep and the announced influences on Aslan
- CBN: C. S. Lewis’s family reportedly “upset” over the choice
- Fox News: Paramount added explanatory language to Noah marketing
- The Christian Post: FDC’s Faith-Friendly Film Review of Exodus
- Charisma: FDC’s response to Killing Jesus
