The Lie in the Lion's Skin
A Conversation Between C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien on the Rumor that Meryl Streep will Play Aslan
Scene: The Eagle and Child pub, Oxford. Two old friends in the corner, wrapped in pipe smoke and memory.
Lewis (folding a newspaper and setting it aside): “Have you heard it? The latest rumor - Meryl Streep as Aslan.”
Tolkien (nodding): “They’ve made the Christ-lion into a spectacle, have they?”
Lewis: “It was only a matter of time, I suppose. They’ve kept the lion’s name but I fear they’ve forgotten the Lion.”
Tolkien: “We mustn’t lose hope, Jack. Perhaps they only mean to use Miss Streep’s voice, so it is an artistic choice, not a theological or political one. It may not mean that they intend to turn Aslan into a lioness.”
Lewis: “True enough, Tollers. But the fact that it is believable today speaks volumes. Just look how they’re describing it in the press: Aslan is a dignified and quasi-omniscient lion, generally seen to be male. Preposterous!”
Tolkien: “If it does come to pass, I suppose they will call it reimagining. But what they’re really doing is dissolving form.”
Lewis: “And with it, the possibility of truth. Once a thing loses its shape, it can mean anything. Which is to say, it means nothing.”
Tolkien: “Like that dreadful little book you used to rage about, the one that taught children to ‘see through’ everything until there was nothing left to see.”
Lewis: “Yes. That was the beginning of it. Training children to question the very idea of objective truth. To teach that all values are merely one fine choice among many. From there, fairy tales no longer serve a deeper purpose of orienting our souls toward truth and beauty. They are merely artifacts to dissect for hidden prejudice. We learn to experience story not with our imagination, but with suspicion.”
Tolkien: “And now they read Aslan that way. As an image to manipulate. Not a lion, not a king, not the breath of a deeper world, but a concept to update.”
Lewis: “They forget that I didn’t invent him! He came roaring into the story of his own accord, the way the real breaks through the veil. And He came as a lion - and as a man - because that’s what is true.”
Tolkien: “But our age has grown hostile to truth so they dress falsehood in the garments of the sacred. It’s The Last Battle all over again, Jack.”
Lewis (leaning forward): “Yes. That’s it. The donkey in the lion’s skin. And the people - good, confused people - will believe it – while enemies pour into Narnia.”
Tolkien: “A skin-suit of tradition to disguise the machinations of progress.”
Lewis: “They will still call Him Aslan, but they do not know who He is.”
Tolkien: “They will keep the image, but lose the Incarnation.”
Lewis: “And the Incarnation matters! God is beyond our ideas of male and female, yet He chose to reveal Himself as Father and to take on the flesh of a man. The Incarnation was not arbitrary, it was a revelation. Even when Christ speaks of Himself as a mother hen wanting to gather her chicks, He does so within the framework of sonship. This is part of a divine pattern we have yet to fully understand. To discard that pattern in favor of a narrative of subversion and empowerment is not progress, it is loss.”
Tolkien: “And if they are willing to subvert something this foundational it makes me wonder what else they will miss. The deeper magic, perhaps. The sacramental vision and the need for salvation.”
Lewis: “They won’t miss it, they’ll gut it. They’ll take something wild and sacred and recast it as a tale of self-celebration or personal fulfillment. The Lion will no longer roar, it will simply affirm.”
Tolkien (sadly): “They’ll flatten the mystery so it can reinforce their own modern worldview. In their hands, Narnia will no longer point outward to truth, but inward to ego.”
Lewis (grouchily): “And the real magic, the timeless, aching pull toward goodness and glory, will be gone. Left behind like a forgotten wardrobe in an empty room.”
Tolkien: “But that ache will always remain, Jack. That deep, unnameable longing that first drew readers through your wardrobe will outlast any adaptation. This film, if done as poorly as we fear, will never satisfy. The yearning in our hearts is proof that something real is behind it all. That the real Lion is still there, waiting.”
Lewis: “Yes. He is not tame. He is not safe. But He is good. And even if they forget Him, even if they dress a donkey in His skin, the real Aslan will still be calling.”
If you’d like to read more of my writing on Lewis and Tolkien, you can find it here and here.
And a hat tip to the many fine folks on X who posted variations on the theme of a donkey in a lion’s skin that inspired this piece, like Shane Morris (@GShaneMorris).
Artwork by Pauline Baynes.