In Defence of a Multicoloured Aslan

Featured Image Artist Credit: Mykola Kaftan

Narnia fans have been waiting almost 16 years for a new Narnia movie. When Netflix’s movie Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew arrives in February, it will have been the longest period in between Narnia screen adaptations since the 1967 ITV production.

Today, Empire Magazine released two images from the film. One is the witch Jadis with Digory and Polly in the land of Charn. The other is a picture of writer-director Greta Gerwig’s depiction of Aslan.

Like any good 21st Century protestant evangelical Christian millennial, I follow some Christian bloggers. There has been an almighty uproar over this picture of Aslan, which was paired alongside the announcement of Meryl Streep voicing Aslan.

I find much of their negativity and snark to be misplaced – although understandable. Many Christians who grew up on The Chronicles of Narnia hold their memories of Aslan very dearly. And yes, the author Lewis implies that Aslan is Jesus Christ Himself. (How close that claim is to idolatry is a discussion for another day.)

However, here is my hot take on why a multicoloured Aslan might not be such a bad thing.

I have three points which could be listed under the headings of: Culture, Art, and Joy.

Let’s get an important detail out of the way. Empire (having partnered with Netflix and Gerwig, obviously) has reported that Aslan is male.

Actors and actresses’ job is to play characters who are different from them. Streep playing Aslan is the same thing as men in Shakespeare’s day, playing women on stage. Some of us need to calm down a bit. Having listened to Streep’s voice today, she does have a somewhat husky and deep voice for a woman, and she can do a British accent (if that’s how they depict Aslan’s voice). So at this stage there is not much to worry about with the news of Aslan being depicted by a woman, and Streep, nonetheless.

The important thing in this scenario was always that Aslan be portrayed as male. As far we know today, that is what we’re getting.

Culture

May I say to all the Christians, from the modern West, who are upset that Gerwig’s Aslan looks multicoloured: could it be that you are upset because of a cultural view that colourful things are more feminine, rather than masculine?

For example, it’s entirely possible that in other cultures, women could be the ones wearing only black and white, and men were the ones to enjoy wearing multicoloured clothes. Heck, even hero of the faith Joseph wore Jacob’s multicoloured coat with pride!

There is no biblical precedent that bright colours are feminine only. If we are concerned that a male Aslan being multicoloured is not masculine, then that is a cultural bias. 

Art

Thinking about this today, I performed a thought experiment.

Imagine there was a painter who had never read the Bible, and never seen any artwork depicting people or events from it.

Then they are given a Bible. They lap it up, soak it in and their mind and heart are changed by the story of God’s love, wrath, grace and mercy.

They then decide to paint a depiction of the God of the Bible to express their joy.

Would they use many colours? Bright colours? Of course they might!

The God of the Bible is beautiful in his character. And He is creative! Look at the world he created! Fish and insects of many colours. Fur and feathers of many shades.

Our daily life is lived upon a backdrop of green grass, a blue sky, and the occasional grey skies followed by a 7-coloured rainbow!

There’s a reason why so many nature documentaries get made! The world, despite sin, is beautiful!

So, hear my second point: Colours are not bad. They are good. God created colours. Therefore, it’s ok for a depiction of a God-like character to be colourful.

Joy

The Bible is full of joy. Creation and the gospel are full of joy.

What we have now, is a mainstream, non-Christian in Greta Gerwig, raised in a Catholic high school, making a seemingly joyous depiction of our good God – the God of love. God who is love.

If that’s not a good thing, I don’t know what is.