A friend of C.S. Lewis’ stepson said this week that the late author’s family is “very upset” by the upcoming adaption of Narnia.
Dr. Ted Baehr told CBN News that the family is “very concerned about it, because they’re worried that it’s going to, you know, destroy the brand.” Baehr is connected to the family as Lewis’ 80-year-old stepson, Douglas Gresham, is godfather to Baehr’s daughter-in-law.
Discussing Meryl Streep cast as Aslan, Baehr said, “Theologically this is a tremendous heresy and it’s a tremendous problem.” He noted, “So it shouldn’t happen.”
“C.S. Lewis would be turning over his grave. His family is very upset about it, and I think we should be upset about it,” he explained. Baer went on to suggest that the family is in the middle of attempting to regain control of The C.S. Lewis Company, which entered into an agreement with Netflix in 2018.
“They did a big campaign. They’re trying to regain control of The C.S. Lewis Company in order that,” Baehr said. “The problem is, and this happens quite often — no, I shouldn’t tell you that. But anyway, things happen.”
Baehr emphasized that Aslan is intended to represent Jesus. Detailing the female casting, he said, “One, it’s beloved; one, it’s going to destroy the brand. But there’s a deeper issue, which is the theological issue.”
“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 another book in the 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 added, “You have to have God as a Father. You can’t have God being voiced as a woman. This is not theologically correct.”
Director Greta Gerwig told Empire that in casting Streep, she “wanted someone who was older than 70, so there was a wisdom of experience, but who also had the capacity of fresh wonder, like a child. And also to be one of the greatest actors to ever do it. That list is not a long one.”
