CS Lewis' family issues statement amid uproar over Meryl Streep's Aslan casting: 'We are thrilled'

Members of C.S. Lewis' family issued a statement supporting the upcoming Netflix adaptation of The Magician's Nephew amid a claim that they were "very upset" by Meryl Streep's casting as Aslan.

The families of David and Douglas Gresham, the stepsons of the late British author through his brief marriage to Joy Davidman Gresham, made their statement in the wake of Movieguide founder Ted Baehr claiming last month that they feared the uproar from fans over Streep's casting would "destroy the brand," according to a Tuesday report from NarniaWeb.

“From our ongoing conversations with [director] Greta Gerwig, we have personally witnessed her sincere passion for the Narnia series. Her life-long love of C.S. Lewis is apparent to everyone involved with this film," the statement said.

"We saw this enthusiasm during our visit to the set in London. We are thrilled to be working with such a talented and accomplished director and production team, and are keen to continue working with them on future projects. Our vision is for this movie to be enormously successful and for this calibre of talent to be applied to all of the Chronicles of Narnia," continued the statement, which was issued through Netflix. A shorter version was also published in an Oct. 4 story by The Associated Press.

NarniaWeb, which touts itself as "your source for Narnia news since 2003," claims it has been in contact with the Gresham family, who maintain that they have yet to view any footage or listen to any audio of Gerwig's The Magician's Nephew. David Gresham died in 2014 and Douglas, 80, is reportedly suffering from dementia and Parkinson's disease, though he retains an executive producer credit on the Netflix adaptation.

The film, which is slated for a theatrical release next February and a Netflix release in April, has drawn a flood of backlash from Narnia fans who claim that tinkering with the gender identity of Aslan is an affront that drags liberal ideology into the classic Christian allegory. A petition demanding Gerwig be replaced as director for future Netflix Narnia adaptations has received thousands of signatures.

The statement published by NarniaWeb comes weeks after Baehr told CBN News that Streep's casting as the Christ-like lion is heretical and that unhappy members of the Gresham family are attempting to regain control of The C.S. Lewis Company, which manages the literary and media rights to Lewis' works. The company reportedly inked a nine-figure, multi-year deal with Netflix in 2018 to develop new series and film projects based on The Chronicles of Narnia.

"Theologically this is a tremendous heresy and it's a tremendous problem. ... So it shouldn't happen," Baehr said of Streep's casting. "C.S. Lewis would be turning over in his grave. His family is very upset about it, and I think we should be upset about it."

The C.S. Lewis Company also issued a statement supporting Gerwig. "It's incredibly moving to see how deeply Greta Gerwig has embraced C.S. Lewis' world, and infused 'Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew' with joy, heart, and genuine love for the story," the company said earlier this week, according to the AP.

CP VOICES: Netflix's Narnia is an attack on Aslan's Christ figure

Baehr, who is a friend of the Gresham family and served as president of the Episcopal Radio and Television Foundation when it produced the animated version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe on CBS in 1979, echoed fans' concerns that a female actress portraying Aslan has serious theological implications. 

"One, it's beloved; [two], it's going to destroy the brand. But there's a deeper issue, which is the theological issue," he said, placing the controversy in the wider context of modern debates over gender and God's revealed nature in Scripture.

"Because God the Father, and Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit and, of course, the whole process leads toward The Last Battle, and The Last Battle represents Jesus in Heaven," he said, referring to the last book in the Narnia series. "If God is a Father, He is not Meryl Streep pretending to be a father. He's not trans. He's the Father, He's our Father. He loves us, He adopts us."

Baehr noted that The Magician's Nephew was intended as the Genesis of Narnia, and that the fatherhood of God in creating the world is a foundational theological assertion.

"You have to have God as a Father. You can't have God being voiced as a woman. This is not theologically correct," he said.

Baehr, who said he spoke with Gerwig after she agreed to direct The Magician's Nephew, noted that while he believes the director "has a heart for God," he raised doubts over whether she has the biblical worldview to faithfully pull off the adaptation.

"I don't want to classify her in any category, but if you look at [Gerwig's] 'Barbie' or whatever, it's much more feminist. There's a feminist undertone. It's not a biblical portrait of relationships. And I think you need to see the biblical portrait," he said of Gerwig.

Gerwig, who grew up as a Unitarian Universalist, said in a 2018 interview that she feels "uncomfortable around 'Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior stuff,'" and that she finds it "creepy." She also expressed distaste for the masculine identity of God revealed in the Bible, claiming she prefers prayers to the Virgin Mary because "it feels like this 'God the Father' thing is a bit alienating for me."

Gerwig has said she envisions her adaptation of The Magician's Nephew to be "a rock opera," claiming, "David Bowie saved my life. Paul McCartney saved my life. David Gilmour saved my life. Pete Townshend saved my life. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant. ... Narnia is literally a world made out of music. It is a world sung to life by Aslan." Her version of Aslan has heterochromic eyes and a red-striped face in a direct nod to Bowie's iconic look, according to Empire.