Following her work on Barbie, director Greta Gerwig is adapting C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix, with the first film currently casting. Now, one of the major roles has been filled. Emma Mackey has reportedly been cast as Jadis, an evil sorceress who is best known by the people of Narnia as the White Witch.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mackey nabbed the part of the White Witch over the other top contender, Margaret Qualley. Previous reports that Charli XCX was playing the White Witch didn’t pan out. However, THR notes that the rumors about Meryl Streep voicing the lion Aslan appear to be true with the actress currently in talks for the role. In the books, Aslan is a male lion who was voiced by Liam Neeson in the previously released theatrical movies.
Jadis was introduced in the first Narnia novel, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as the intractable tyrant who ruled over the land with an endless winter. Her power was so great that even Father Christmas couldn’t enter Narnia before Aslan’s return was immanent. Gerwig’s movie will reportedly adapt Lewis’ sixth novel, The Magician’s Apprentice, which served as an origin story for Narnia and revealed how Jadis came to be there.
The role marks Mackey’s return to Netflix after her leading part in the streamer’s sex comedy Sex Education. Mackey also had a small role as one of the Barbies in Barbie, as well as a supporting part in Death on the Nile. Additionally, Mackey played Emily Brontë in the 2022 film Emily.
Earlier this year, a report emerged about former James Bond actor Daniel Craig eying a role in Gerwig’s Narnia film, but that has yet to be confirmed. What has been confirmed is that Netflix will give Gerwig’s Narnia movie a limited release in IMAX
The film is expected to hit theaters around Thanksgiving 2026, with a Netflix debut near Christmas 2026.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.