Walden Media Outlines the Narnia Movie Series

"Entertainment Weekly has an article outlining Walden Media’s plans for the future of the Chronicles of Narnia series of films. Here is the order given:

1. The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe (2005)
2. Prince Caspian (2008?)
3. Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Magician’s Nephew
6. The Horse and His Boy
7. The Last Battle

The article also says that, according to Cary Granat (CEO, Walden), Prince Caspian may be bumped from 2007 to Christmas 2008 due to daunting effects demands. The article adds that Walden plans to use Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair to create an interlocking trilogy that will be shot in order.
No official release dates have been announced for any of the upcoming films."

Other than the series dragging out so long (18 more years unless they speed things up), this is very interesting news. I say interesting because this would neither use the Published Order or the Chronological Order.

There has always been a debate, in the Narniac (fans of the series) community, of whether the books should be read in Chronological Order or the Published Order.

The Chronological Order is:

The Magician’s Nephew (How Aslan created Narnia)
The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy (Happens during the reign of the 4 Pevensies before the end of LWW)
Prince Caspian
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

While the Chronological approach is not bad after one has read the entire series, it is awful if you have not already read it because certain elements, if they are revealed too early, ruin the suspense of the storyline. An example are key plot devices The Magician's Nephew uses that better explain things from LWW. If one has never read the whole series before seeing/reading the stories in Published Order leaves more room for suspense.

The Published order is:

The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician’s Nephew
The Last Battle

For more on the debate see the article, What Order Should I Read the Narnia Books in (And Does It Matter?).