Emma Mackey's Jadis has finally stepped out of the shadows in the first images from Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew. The teaser offered fans a mysterious glimpse of the woman destined to become one of C.S. Lewis's most notorious villains.
Released ahead of the film's 2027 debut, the images show Mackey in character as Jadis, years before audiences know her as the White Witch. Rather than presenting her immediately as the icy ruler of Narnia, Gerwig's adaptation appears to introduce a more chaotic and theatrical version of the character.
Chaos and Bad Plans
Speaking to Empire, Mackey described Jadis as 'all chaos and bad plans' in the script, calling her a 'larger-than-life creature'. The description offers an intriguing clue about how the film intends to approach a character whose origins are central to The Magician's Nephew.
In Lewis's novel, Jadis comes from the dying world of Charn and is encountered by Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer after they begin travelling between worlds using magical rings created through the experiments of Digory's Uncle Andrew. Their journey eventually leads them to a world that is not yet Narnia.
Jadis is inadvertently brought into London, where her extraordinary powers and destructive personality create chaos. The first images appear to tease precisely this section of the story, showing Mackey's character causing destruction in what looks like the real world.
That makes the new portrayal particularly significant. The White Witch is already familiar to audiences through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but The Magician's Nephew travels backwards to explain where she came from and how she eventually becomes the tyrannical figure associated with Narnia.
Rock Opera Aesthetics
The new Jadis also appears to fit Gerwig's unusually theatrical interpretation of Lewis's fantasy world. Mackey is shown wearing striking silver armour, while the production's visual style has been described as drawing heavily from 1970s rock and glam influences. Gerwig has characterised her approach as a kind of 'rock opera', with David Bowie among her inspirations.
The film is also making a significant change to the period in which the story takes place. Lewis's novel was set in the early 20th century, but Gerwig has moved the story to 1950s Britain. Netflix's official material confirms that the film follows Digory and Polly as they discover the Wood Between the Worlds and encounter characters including Jadis and Uncle Andrew.
A New Take on Jadis
Mackey will appear alongside Daniel Craig, who plays Uncle Andrew, Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds, Denise Gough, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Susan Wokoma. Newcomers David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell play Digory and Polly respectively, while Meryl Streep provides the voice of Aslan.
The first-look material therefore raises an intriguing question: how far will Gerwig transform Jadis before she becomes the White Witch audiences recognise?
For now, the answer remains deliberately unclear. The images show a powerful, flamboyant and seemingly unpredictable Jadis, but they stop short of revealing the full extent of her ambitions.
Narnia: The Magician's Nephew is scheduled to arrive in cinemas worldwide on 12 February 2027, including IMAX, before beginning its Netflix streaming run on 2 April. It will mark the first feature-film adaptation of Lewis's 1955 novel.
