Meryl Streep, 77, has drawn fire from Christian commentators for voicing Aslan in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Netflix adaptation of “The Magician’s Nephew.”
Gerwig, 41, the director behind “Barbie” and “Little Women,” cast the three-time Oscar winner as the lion central to C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series. The film is scheduled for release in theaters and on the streaming platform next year.
David Fairchild, a Texas preacher, condemned the gender-swapped casting in remarks to The Telegraph. “Giving Aslan a female voice isn’t daring or profound or some brilliant act of creative genius – it’s an act of creative vandalism,” he said. Fairchild continued that Gerwig was “handed one of the most beloved works of Christian fiction in the 20th century” and “decided that even the central figure needed her brilliant editorial correction.”
Jenna Ellis, an American evangelical radio host, leveled a similar charge, accusing Gerwig of “profaning Christ with the divine feminine.”
The backlash has spread across social media platforms. One longtime Streep fan appealed directly to the actress on Twitter: “Dear Meryl Streep. I have watched your films and loved your talent for 40 years. Please do not do this. They are using you and your good name to blaspheme Christians.”
Another critic questioned the theological consistency of the choice: “Aslan is based on the story of Jesus. Jesus is male, and Aslan is obviously a male lion. What’s this about?”
A third detractor focused on biological plausibility in their Twitter post: “It doesn’t even make sense why a MALE LION would sound like Meryl Streep! It’s ridiculous!”
Gerwig has publicly defended selecting Streep for the role. “I wanted someone who was profound but not pretentious, who had gravitas but not morose self-seriousness,” she told Empire magazine. She added: “Someone who could communicate depth and pathos as well as joy and delight.”
The director elaborated on her specific criteria in the same interview. “I 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,” she said. “And also to be one of the greatest actors to ever do it. That list is not a long one.”
Lewis, who died in 1963, wrote Aslan as a male lion and intended the character as a Christ figure, a parallel that has made the gender change particularly contentious among some Christian audiences. Liam Neeson, 72, voiced the character in the earlier Walden Media film adaptations released between 2005 and 2010.
The Netflix project has also attached Carey Mulligan, Daniel Craig, and Emma Mackey to undisclosed roles.
