Liam Neeson has said that Meryl Streep is the ideal actor to take over the role of Aslan, the lion at the heart of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. The Oscar-nominated actor, who voiced Aslan across the three Disney-produced films released between 2005 and 2010, made the remark in a recent interview, saying there was « nobody better than » Streep for the part.
Neeson's comments come as Greta Gerwig prepares a new screen version of the series. Her film, titled The Magician's Nephew, is set to premiere in theaters on February 12, and reports indicate that Streep is taking on the Aslan role in it. Neeson, however, said he had not known about the project. Asked about it, he responded that the news was new to him, « This is news to me ».
Neeson's reaction was reported in the interview, though the precise wording of his remarks has been described slightly differently across coverage. What is clear is his endorsement of Streep as a successor, and his surprise at learning of a fresh adaptation that will recast the character he once gave voice to. His performance as Aslan was a visible part of the earlier trilogy, which brought Lewis's fantasy world to a wide cinema audience during the second half of the 2000s, and the films were produced by Disney across those five years of release.
The recasting marks a new chapter for the franchise. Gerwig's film returns to the earliest story in Lewis's sequence, The Magician's Nephew, rather than continuing from the three films that preceded it. Its February 12 release places it in the coming awards and release season, and it will be watched closely by fans who grew up with Neeson's version of the lion. The contrast between Neeson's earlier performance and the new casting has become the central point of the conversation around the project so far.