Narnia Casting From a Galaxy Far, Far Away
Door Jam: September 29, 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.
We still don’t know much about Greta Gerwig’s adaptation, but casting news continues to trickle out. The latest reveal unites Narnia with the Star Wars universe.
What does Star Wars have to do with Narnia? Before now, probably not much, unless we’re comparing Tashbaan and Tatooine with all the sand.
But the latest casting news on Narnia is bringing the two fictional worlds a little closer together. Denise Gough has announced that she has a role in Gerwig’s film.
If that name doesn’t sound familiar, what about this scowl?
Gough played the analytically evil Dedra Meero in Andor, one of the best TV shows of the past decade. Not one of the best Star Wars shows, one of the best TV shows period. Now, she’s set to join the Narnia cast.
In an episode of the We’re Not Kidding podcast, Gough shared some about her work on Andor and her off-camera political views.
At the end of the podcast, she was asked about where people would see her next. She noted her next movie role would be Narnia.
I’m doing a film with Greta Gerwig called Narnia. So that’s, I’m playing someone mean in that, but it’s fine, it’s to children, it’s okay.
If you listen to the audio, she’s clearly joking about the situation of her being typecast after her superb performance as a ruthless intelligence officer for the Empire.
But it does raise the question of who she might be. Since Jadis, aka the White Witch, has already been cast, that doesn’t leave us with many main options for someone in The Magician’s Nephew who is “mean” to children.
She could be Jadis’ sister from Charn, though that character doesn’t have any scenes with the children in the book. Another possibility is Aunt Letty, though she’s not really mean, but more strict. There is also the chance that she is a new character created for the movie.
The one that is most exciting to me is Mrs. Lefay, Uncle Andrew’s godmother. We could see her in flashbacks. We don’t know much about her except that she misused magic and ended up in prison. What she passed down to Andrew led to the children discovering Charn, the dying kingdom of Jadis, and, eventually, Narnia.
None of the available book characters seem to be an exact match to what Gough said, but it could also be that she’s playing up the “mean” aspect after talking about her Andor role.
Regardless of her Narnia role, the movie will reunite Gough with Beatrice Campbell, who is set to play Polly Plummer. Gough played Campbell’s mother in The Stolen Girl.
Sources:
Not Safe But Good
C.S. Lewis quote of the week
But in reading great literature, I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself, and am never more myself than when I do.
Tumnus’ bookshelf
Books by or about Lewis or Tolkien
There are dozens of Tolkien books on sale right now at Amazon. If you’re looking to expand your Tolkien library, I’d suggest you check the J.R.R. Tolkien author page.
If you’d like some cheap ebooks, here is a sampling:
Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary — $1.99 (83% off)
Letters From Father Christmas — $1.99 (83% off)
Looking for boxsets?
Tolkien Myths and Legends Box Set: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, The Fall of Arthur, Beowulf (hardcover) — $51.01 (59% off)
The Lord of the Rings Box Set: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King (hardcover) — $38.75 (57% off)
Here are single hardcover books:
The Silmarillion Collector’s Edition (hardcover) — $12.26 (65% off)
The Making of Middle-earth: The Worlds of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings (hardcover) — $15.42 (53%)
C.S. Lewis ebooks on sale this week:
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold — $1.99 (86% off)
Image and Imagination — $1.99 (82% off)
Behind the Wardrobe
Sneak peek at the bonus articles
Below, paid subscribers will read what IMAX’s CEO Richard Gelfond revealed about the Narnia movie at a recent conference, the film’s director of photography shares his first impression, more on the artist behind the movie’s score, temptation brought to life in a stage adaptation of one of Lewis’ works, the world’s oldest road that also happened to inspire The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien and allegory, a new BBC show depicting two writers who were very influential on Lewis, and more.
