Liam Neeson Reacts To Meryl Streep Taking Over ‘Narnia’ Role Of Aslan: “Nobody Better”

After 16 years, Liam Neeson is passing one of literary’s great characters on to one of Hollywood’s greatest talents.

The Oscar nominee, who voiced Aslan in Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia movies (2005-’10), recently shared his reaction to the news of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, premiering in Feb. 12 in theaters, giving Meryl Streep his seal of approval in taking over his former role.

“I’m sorry, this is news to me,” admitted Neeson when a ScreenRant reporter brought up the new adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia books.

When Neeson learned that Streep is taking over the role of the great talking lion Aslan, who is responsible for Narnia’s creation and depicted as the fictional land’s Jesus, he said, “Meryl is playing Jesus Christ? Well, if you’re going to make Christ a lady, nobody better than Meryl.”

Gerwig, who wrote and directed the upcoming adaptation, explained that the “list is not a long one” for actors she had in mind to voice the character. “I wanted someone who was profound but not pretentious, who had gravitas but not morose self-seriousness. Someone who could communicate depth and pathos as well as joy and delight,” she told Empire.

“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,” added Gerwig. “And also to be one of the greatest actors to ever do it. That list is not a long one.”

Based on Lewis’ sixth in the series, The Magician’s Nephew is chronologically the first in The Chronicles of Narnia, following Aslan’s creation of Narnia, a thousand years before the events of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

In 2023, Gerwig confirmed her plans to adapt Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia books for Netflix. Streep became attached to the role of Aslan last April.

Neeson previously voiced Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010).