Why changes to Aslan’s gender could be cause for concern
Empire readers got a sneak peek at Netflix’s long-awaited Narnia reboot in late September. Directed by Barbie’s Greta Gerwig, Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew brings Narnia’s origin story to the silver screen for the first time, though not without some significant departures from C.S. Lewis’s source material–including potential changes to Aslan’s gender.
Gerwig is known for her unique artistic vision, and The Magician’s Nephew is no exception. Captivated by the way Aslan sings a world to life in Lewis’s tale, Gerwig combines Narnia’s musical origins with her own foundational influences–British rock artists of the ‘60s and ‘70s. “David Bowie saved my life. Paul McCartney saved my life…when I heard their music, I had this deep sense of [thinking], ‘You’re gonna be okay,’” Gerwig told Empire.
The glam-rock style of Bowie is a particularly significant influence on the movie’s visuals, with future White Witch Jadis appearing in tinselly, costume-like armor and Aslan’s visage bearing Bowie’s trademark red stripes and multicolored eyes.
Consistent with the inspiration taken from progressive rock, Gerwig brings The Magician’s Nephew forward from Lewis’s early-twentieth-century London to the 1950s. After all, as Empire’s Ben Travis opines, “the kids of grey, muted 1950s Britain became the vibrant, ceaselessly imaginative ‘70s rock heroes that illuminated Gerwig’s world.”
The most consequential change, however, could be to the character of Aslan, Narnia’s leonine Christ-figure.
Aslan’s gender matters
Empire’s feature revealed that Meryl Streep had been cast to voice the great lion, marking a significant departure from prior cinematic portrayals, which depicted him as unmistakably male. Casting an actress to voice Aslan raises significant concerns about how Narnia’s Christ-figure will be portrayed in our gender-confused modern culture.
Many commentators have argued that casting Streep means that Gerwig’s Aslan will be female, but several indicators suggest that she may intend the character to be androgynous instead. For one thing, despite having a female voice actress, Aslan still appears to be male, and Empire’s coverage consistently refers to the lion as “he.”
David Bowie’s influence is another important clue. The late rock star was known for experimenting with androgynous style, which, in turn, “helped invent” the glam-rock movement that inspired the movie’s visuals. Lastly, Gerwig’s own discomfort with God as Father, voiced in a 2018 interview, may push her version of Aslan in a genderless (or gender-confused) direction.
There is, of course, always a chance that Streep may pitch her voice to sound male. But the casting of an actress to play a male character, particularly one serving as a depiction of Jesus himself, gives us an opportunity to articulate why gender matters as part of God’s created order, and why Jesus’ masculinity is a fundamental element of his nature.
The Lion of Judah and the Bride of Christ
At the dawn of time, God created humans “in his own image,” both “male and female” (Genesis 1:27). Men and women reflect aspects of God’s nature by virtue of their gender, which, like all things that God created, is very good (Genesis 1:31). Yet, from the 1970s onward, our culture has witnessed numerous attempts to confuse or “bend” gender in personal style and presentation.
Individuals who adopt an androgynous appearance often do so in protest, claiming that gender is a cultural construct that prevents people from embracing their true identities. However, in Lewis’s words, “Gender is a reality, and a more fundamental reality than [biological] sex.” In his essay Priestesses in the Church?, Lewis states that biological sex, as an outward sign of this inward reality, “was created” in part “to symbolize to us the hidden things of God.”
One of those hidden things is our own relationship to Christ.
Across time, God the Son has consistently revealed himself to us as male. Centuries before the Incarnation, Isaiah spoke of a promised “son” who would be called “Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). In the Incarnation, this promised Son took on human nature in a male body (Luke 2:7). And at the end of time, he will return as the Bridegroom, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” to rescue his Bride, the church (Revelation 19:7, 11-16).
Respecting the newest Narnia adaptation, Aslan’s gender matters because the Narnia stories are, fundamentally, retellings of the gospel–and Aslan is Jesus himself, not just an allegorical representation of him.
Pursued with an “everlasting love”
In a 1961 letter to a young fan, Lewis writes, “Supposing there really was a world like Narnia…and supposing Christ wanted to go into that world and save it (as He did ours) what might have happened?…The stories are my answer.”
In Narnia, Lewis explains, Jesus takes the form of a lion, “the king” of Narnia’s “talking beasts” and “the lion of Judah.” Aslan’s role in Narnia is no different than the role of Christ in ours, because they are the same person. In Narnia and in our world, Jesus is Lord, protector, rescuer, and redeemer.
And this is why his masculinity matters. Just as earthly husbands reflect God’s image when they care for and protect their wives (Ephesians 5:25), Jesus, as the Bridegroom, is our rescuer and protector. He loves us, delights in us, and clothes us in righteousness (Zephaniah 3:17, Isaiah 61:10). And as the Bride of Christ, we rejoice in the love that has redeemed us.
While individual men and women reflect the glory of God in our masculinity and femininity, as Christ’s Bride, to borrow a phrase from Lewis, “we are all, corporately and individually, feminine to Him.” Jesus’ male identity reveals a fundamental truth about our relationship to God–that we are treasured, and pursued with an “everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).
How is Jesus’ loving pursuit transforming your life today?
