Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Mike Redmond | News | November 6, 2026
As you can probably guess because they look excruciating, celebrities do not love junket interviews. Don’t get me wrong, most of them are cordial and do their best to sell their latest product, but every once in a while, the mask slips. You can see that would rather be literally anywhere else, and that was on full display when Liam Neeson got sandbagged with news about Meryl Streep playing Aslan in Greta Gerwig’s new Narnia movie.
Why would Neeson be presented with this information? Well, it’s easy to forget that he voiced the titular lion in 2005’s The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe film and its two sequels. Disney’s bite at the Lord of the Rings apple unceremoniously farted out after The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 2010, and the franchise never made it to the remaining books in C.S. Lewis’ series.
With the success of Barbie at her back, Gerwig is taking a stab at adapting the beloved books for Netflix, but this time, she’s starting chronologically with The Magician’s Nephew. Gerwig is reportedly attached to write and direct one more Narnia film, then no clue what happens after that. So things are going great! Anyway, all of this is news to Neeson.
While promoting The Mongoose in an interview with ScreenRant, Neeson is asked about Gerwig’s film. When he responds that he’s completely in the dark on all of this, the interviewer is thrilled to be the one to bring Neeson up to speed, who reacts with a very unenthusiastic, “Oh great.” At that point, I would’ve crawled under my chair.
However, Neeson is an old pro, and he soon rebounds with a more clever and diplomatic reaction to learning Streep is taking over as Alsan. “Meryl is playing Jesus Christ?” he quips. “Well, if you’re going to make Christ a lady, nobody better than Meryl.”
You can watch Liam Neeson never be so bored in his life below:
