Why 55 years on, Netflix is buying a Stairway To Heaven with Greta Gerwig's Narnia movie

For decades, filmmakers begged Led Zeppelin to let them use the band's best-known song on screen.

And now, 55 years after Stairway To Heaven was released, members of the group have relented – allowing it to be used in a Netflix adaptation of The Chronicles Of Narnia.

Barbie director Greta Gerwig showed Jimmy Page and Robert Plant an early cut of The Magician's Nephew, the sixth book in CS Lewis's fantasy series, in a bid to persuade them. 

They were so moved by what they saw, she said, that they allowed her to use the song after half a century of refusals. 

The decision was also down to their 'love' of the author, the Oscar nominee told US talk show presenter Stephen Colbert. The film is set for release next year.

Some Led Zeppelin songs have been used in films but Stairway To Heaven has always been off the table. 

55 years after Stairway To Heaven was released, Led Zeppeling have gone back on their vow that the song would never be used on screen, but allowing it to be used in a Netflix adaptation of The Chronicles Of Narnia

In 1992's Wayne's World, the titular character starts to play it in a music shop but is shown a sign that reads: 'No Stairway To Heaven.'

Despite the inclusion of an iconic band, Greta Gerwig's adaptation of C.S. Lewis's Narnia chronicles has left fans flummoxed with the first trailer panned as 'a bizarre, disastrous fever dream'.

The Barbie film-maker has written and directed the first screen adaptation of Lewis's first chronological book in the series, considered to be an origin story for Narnia.

Gerwig and Netflix will release the film in cinemas in February 2027, and kicked off their promotional campaign with a trailer screening for selected press and influencers in a New York Imax theatre on Tuesday.

The film-maker said she was brought to tears when she saw her trailer on the big screen and as the teaser dropped on YouTube, there were plenty more visceral reactions from fans.

After an opening shot of the famous wardrobe, Daniel Craig's uncle Andrew is seen teaching David McKenna's Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, played by Beatrice Campbell, that magic is real and the children are soon transported, via a magic ring, to a surreal new realm. 

The song choice combined with the CGI-heavy visuals have irked many fans though. 

'God this looks awful. Just spectacle slop, no sense of intrigue, no 'less is more', no subtlety, just bombast and colour', one viewer commented on YouTube. 

Barbie director Greta Gerwig showed Jimmy Page and Robert Plant an early cut of The Magician's Nephew (the trailer is pictured), in a bid to persuade them

'What a waste of potential. The Narnia stories, and even the earlier movies, had a real down-to-earth feel, which the stories do too. That's their strength.'

'Who'd have ever guessed that giving a legendary, beloved book series like The Chronicles of Narnia to modern Hollywood would result in a bizarre, disastrous fever dream interpretation with some of the worst looking CGI backgrounds ever put on film?' agreed another.

Another simply declared it was 'CGI SLOP' whilst one X user posted that 'C.S. Lewis would be heartbroken.'

'This is a prime example of how something can lose its soul to CGI overuse …The visuals of Netflix's butchering of Narnia literally looks like it was made with AI,' said another. 

Others likened it to a Marvel movie, with one fan begging Gerwig and Netflix: 'Please don't Marvel my Narnia', whilst others posted alternate taglines including 'Aslan the Great Lion will return in Avengers: Doomsday' and 'Narnians of the Galaxy'. 

Some fans commented on character deviations, specifically regarding the depictions of the children and Gerwig's decision to use a female actress to voice Aslan.

'I am extremely unimpressed. This is not Narnia. This is Thor: Love and Thunder and Barbie had a baby. They make the boy a coward, they make the girl the adventurer, and Aslan is supposed to be the pinnacle of masculinity,' read one YouTube comment. 

'C.S. Lewis rolling in his grave. All the core messages he had in this series will be completely ignored and replaced with someone else's interpretation. No thanks,' agreed one more.

Others though were left suitably intrigued by the first trailer, asking other critics to reserve judgment until the film's release.