By now most Narnia fans know that director Greta Gerwig’s Netflix adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew will feature rock ‘n’ roll-inspired music.

While some fans hold out hope for the upcoming film, many are predicting that it will join the ever-growing pile of failed onscreen adaptations.

What is so off-putting about having rock music in Narnia?

The reason goes deeper than the overused stylistic choice to overlay epic classics with modern, discordant music. Rock ‘n’ roll has intrinsic messages that are antithetical to the world of Narnia, and lovers of Aslan instinctively know it.

The heartbeat of Narnia …

C. S. Lewis was a man who loved old books.

He understood that the classics help us avoid the pitfalls of our time.

In his Introduction to Athanasius’ On The Incarnation, Lewis writes that we must “keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.”

Narnia is full of timeless themes and struggles and takes its place as a literary classic because of its connection to great works of the past. The pages of Lewis’s series are filled with a host of wonderous creatures inspired by Greek, Irish, and Norse mythology and medieval fairy stories.

Narnia’s deep themes, such as adventure, loyalty, bravery, wonder, and truth, have been central to fairy tales for centuries. Lewis loved the old world and filled his stories with old-world wonder.

… Versus the themes of rock ‘n’ roll

Now let’s look at rock ‘n’ roll.

The rock genre was founded on ideas of individualism, rebellion, and expressing raw emotion. Rock culture emphasized a defiant break with societal norms; rockers took pleasure in youthful rebellion against authority and tradition.

In early Dec. 2025, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond reiterated that Gerwig’s movie “will feature a contemporary, rock-influenced sound, with artists like Pink Floyd and The Doors cited as examples of the tone fans can expect” (source: NarniaWeb). That repeats information first shared by producer Amy Pascal in this 2024 quote:

This is a real blockbuster movie that’s being made for [IMAX and Netflix] and you know, I guess I do have to talk a little about why I’m so excited about it. This is not your mother’s or your grandmother’s Narnia. The music in it is unbelievably contemporary music, which IMAX fans like. I’m not gonna say specifically, but things like Pink Floyd and The Doors. You know that kind of music which people go to see in IMAX.

These bands are part of the psychedelic rock genre. They use experimental sound in their music that seeks to replicate the disorienting sensations of a drug trip.

Their lyrics include this from Pink Floyd:

There is no dark side of the moon, really
Matter of fact, it’s all dark

“Eclipse”, Pink Floyd

… And this from The Doors:

I’m going, but I need a little time
I promised I would drown myself
In mysticated wine

“Yes, The River Knows”, The Doors

By design these songs are moody, depressive, and nihilistic. There is hardly a musical style less suited to the wonder, joy, and old-world warmth of Narnia.

Where Lewis strove for continuity with the past, rock seeks to break from tradition.

Where Narnia embraces self-sacrifice and loyalty, rock promotes self-creation and rebellion.

The power of music

Before you line up with a list of your favorite Christian rock bands, I am not a Christian who thinks that all rock music is from the devil. I believe the genre can be tastefully redeemed when used to passionately resist darkness.

But the question I am asking here is, “Does rock music fit in the world of Narnia?”

Musical choices matter greatly in film because music affects the way a person perceives the significance and emotion of onscreen events. Think about the way slow saxophone music vs. a drumbeat would change your perception of a scene where two people meet in the dark. The first is romantic, and the second is tense.

Replacing the classical scores you would expect in The Magician’s Nephew with psychedelic, Pink Floyd-esque music will shift the magic of Narina from warm and wonderous to trippy and edgy. It introduces modern, rebellious ideas connected to rock music into the world of Narnia, a place where they absolutely do not belong.

This musical exchange is particularly offensive in The Magician’s Nephew, a book where song has deep creational meaning, displayed when Aslan sings Narnia into existence. To introduce discordant, nihilistic music into a movie that centers around the beauty and order of creation is not only artistically distasteful but undermines Lewis’s explicit vision for music in the story.

Where does that leave us?

Other than praying for a new director to take over the project, Narnia fans can do little but anxiously wait and see how this first-ever screen adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew comes out. But there is good news. We will always have C. S. Lewis’s wonderful novels that no onscreen disaster can touch. They are, after all, timeless.