If your entryway into Narnia has always been The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, you already know that Jadis is bad news: this, after all, is the White Witch, who by the time of that story has imposed her rule over the fantasy kingdom. But in The Magician’s Nephew, chronologically the first Narnia tale, Jadis is in a very different place (literally and metaphorically) though clearly on the path to who she’ll eventually become. In Greta Gerwig’s adaptation – Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew – the role is being played by Emma Mackey, previously one of Barbie’s Barbies (Physicist Barbie, specifically).
As she encounters crosses paths with young Digory (David McKenna) and Polly (Beatrice Campbell), Jadis – long trapped in the realm of Charn – prepares to unleash fresh anarchy. Mackey was instantly hooked by how Gerwig wrote her. “There’s this great line in the script where she’s described as ‘all chaos and bad plans’,” she tells Empire. “She’s this larger-than-life creature who appears in Digory and Polly’s world and takes them by surprise.”
The impact that the otherworldly Jadis has on the kids is evident, too, in her costume – very much in keeping with Gerwig’s glam-rock cultural inspirations. She’s unlike anything they’ll have seen back home in the post-war rubble of 1950s London. “We had to have that duality of fun, which is what the kids are seeing — [a] shiny, exciting person — but also, ‘Wow, you’re a little bit scary, and I don’t really know what foot to dance on with you’,” Mackey says of Jadis’ look. “It was very shiny and exciting, but also comfortable and ready for war.” Bring on all those bad plans.
Read Empire’s full world-exclusive Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew cover story – going on set with Greta Gerwig and her cast, including Daniel Craig, Emma Mackey, and Meryl Streep, to get the first word on her epic fantasy adaptation – in the November 2026 issue, on sale Thursday September 24. Pre-order a copy online here. Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew comes to cinemas from February 12, 2027, and comes to Netflix from April 2, 2027.
