Does Movie Jadis Match Book Jadis?
Door Jam: September 2, 2025
The Door Jam is a place to squeeze in articles about C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, their work, adaptations of their fantasy worlds, news from other franchises, and interesting articles. Unless otherwise stated, I’m not endorsing (or criticizing) any of these but merely sharing them with you.
As we get more looks at Netflix’s Jadis, or at least her stunt double, it’s probably a good time to discuss how this might (or might not) fit with the description of the last queen of Charn from The Magician’s Nephew book.
Greta Gerwig is a confident filmmaker. Once she establishes a concept for her movie, she runs with it. That certainly appears to be the case with Narnia.
Once again, virtually nothing has been confirmed, but from what we can glean from location images and video, she’s making significant changes to details from The Magician’s Nephew, including Jadis’ look.
In the book, Pauline Baynes certainly gave us iconic illustrations of the terrible queen, but Lewis’ text isn’t very specific about her appearance. In Charn, she is described as “richly dressed,” wearing a “crown and robes.”
When she arrives in London, which is presumably the location where we are seeing the stunt double, Lewis describes her as even more imposing. Digory thought she was “hardly human” because she was so tall.
“But even her height was nothing compared with her beauty, her fierceness, and her wildness,” Lewis writes. “She looked ten times more alive than most of the people one meets in London.”
Later, we read her described as an “enormous woman, splendidly dressed, with bare arms and flashing eyes.”1 Aside from those notes, we’re told later that she’s wearing stolen jewelry and is brandishing a knife. When she’s riding on the top of a hansom cab, it says her “long hair streamed out behind her like a comet’s tail.”
In our world, Jadis’ words don’t have the same destructive magical power they did in her own world, but she is still physically strong enough to pick up a grown woman over her head and throw her across the room. She is also able to rip off a crossbar from a lamp post, which leads to the famous Narnia lamp post.
When it comes to the Netflix adaptation, it should be noted again that nothing is confirmed, and these are stunt doubles in stunt costumes that will not be used for up-close shots. With that being said, not much from the book description carries over to what we’ve seen from the location filming.
The movie version of Jadis seems to have short hair (at least judging by the stunt woman’s wig), a more metallic short dress with an odd diamond-shaped chain mail dangling over it, knee-high boots, and is wielding a wand, instead of a knife.
A possible explanation for Jadis’ attire could be a desire to distinguish Charn more from both Narnia and Earth. Charn, Jadis’ home world, is older, so Gerwig may want to give it a futuristic feel. In the book, it feels more like the past than the future.
Below, we’ll have more photos and videos from their location filming, including Jadis seemingly using the wand to knock someone over. One location looks like the ruins of a bombed-out building. If the movie is set in 1955, as has been rumored, that would be 10 years after the end of World War II. I continue to impatiently wait for some context to help us better understand everything.
Sources:
Not Safe But Good
C.S. Lewis quote of the week
Every disease that submits to a cure shall be cured; but we will not call blue yellow to please those who insist on still having jaundice, nor make a midden of the world’s garden for the sake of some who cannot abide the smell of roses.
Tumnus’ bookshelf
Books by or about Lewis or Tolkien
On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature by C.S. Lewis — $0.99 (ebook)
Studies in Words by C.S. Lewis — $0.99 (ebook)
The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis — $1.99 (ebook)
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis — $1.99 (ebook)
The Lord of the Rings (Author Illustrated, One Volume) by J.R.R. Tolkien — $2.99 (ebook)
Behind the Wardrobe
Sneak peek at the bonus articles
Below, paid subscribers will see several videos and photos from the latest Narnia filming location, along with the latest news about the movie, as well as some reflections on Lewis and science, continued inspiration from Lewis and his writing, a church door that may have inspired a famous Middle-earth door, a popular argument about The Lord of the Rings that I hate, our new Laura Croft Tomb Raider, Netflix trying some new things with theatrical releases before Narnia next year, and more.
