I loved the first Chronicles of Narnia movie a few years ago. I thought it was childlike magical storytelling at its best. Timeless story, beautiful themes, great visual effects and child actors who didn’t make me want to gag. The second Narnica film, Prince Caspian, was a step backwards in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the movie alright, but it was hardly memorable and lacked a lot that the first film had.
Another big difference between the first two films is that the second one made a LOT less money, and wasn’t as popular with viewers.
So it’s really not all that big of a surprise that Disney has announced that they will not follow through on plans to make the third film of the series, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The good folks over at IGN give us this:
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio has decided not to exercise its option to co-produce and co-finance the third Narnia film with Walden Media. The budget and logistics were cited as Disney’s primary concerns.
The other production company involved with the Narnia films, Walden Media, is still committed to getting the third film made and is looking for another production partner (early word is that Fox may step up.
Here’s the thing… I like the Narnia franchise… but it’s in a downward spiral and I don’t think that audiences will, in general, be interested enough to come back to Narnia in mass numbers, especially after they lost some credibility with Prince Caspian.
If I had to bet, I’d guess that we probably won’t see a third Narnia film.
