Picture: Independent Talent Group / IMDb
The internet was abuzz on September 3rd when the first major casting for Narnia was reportedly revealed in the footnote of a major trade article; however those reports are untrue.
As a quick recap, Netflix first announced it would be adapting the Narnia books back in 2018 (meaning it’s been six years in 2024 since they first acquired them). Since then, beyond an architect for the stories, development has been slow, and public announcements have been few and far between. In late 2022, we got word that Netflix was circling Greta Gerwig to be a movie director, which was confirmed with subsequent reporting in 2023. To date, Netflix has not officially acknowledged Gerwig being attached to the film.
Condemned to the final paragraph from a Telluride dispatch from Baz Bamigboye, the article seems to echo a recent casting addition to the upcoming movie’s IMDb page. That IMDb update occurred on August 23rd at 7:46 PM, listing Louis Patridge for the role of Digory Kirke.
Tucked at the bottom of the September 2nd Deadline article when talking about Louis Partridge, Baz says, “I also notice that Greta Gerwig has read the memo about him because she has cast Partridge in her untitled Chronicles of Narnia project for Netflix.”
We should note that the Narnia page has been prone to random casting additions, and IMDb does allow anyone to add information to any page. Last week, for instance, Zsa Zsa Utari was on the cast list, although her name is no longer present. Patridge’s Spotlight and agency page neither included references to Narnia among his projects.
Later, on September 3rd, we spoke to several sources who said that the casting was inaccurate (our friends at NarniaWeb also heard the same). Later that night, Deadline removed any reference to Narnia from its article.
Patridge is a rising star and has now been cast in two major Netflix roles. He first broke onto the Netflix scene via the 2022 movie Enola Holmes, where he starred alongside Millie Bobby Brown as Tewksbury. He’s anticipated to return for a third entry, which kicks off filming in early 2025. Over the summer, Patridge (as we first reported) has been filming Netflix’s new biopic period drama series House of Guinness, in which he’ll be playing Edward Guinness.
PIC BY MARK CAMPBELL/MCPIX 07778 526193
Other projects away from Netflix include playing Jonathan in Disclaimer for Apple TV+, and the actor also played Sid Vicious in the recent series Pistols for FX.
Do you think Louis Patridge would have been a good choice for Netflix’s upcoming Narnia movie? Let us know in the comments.
