In December 2005, the first film adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, came to theaters.

The pre-release buzz for the movie was good, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe did well enough to spawn two sequels, with more are on the way, the next in line being The Silver Chair, coming possibly by 2018. In fact, we’ll be getting the complete series according to C.S. Lewis’s son, Douglas Gresham:

“I often hope desperately, and sometimes I pray, that I will live long enough to make all of the books into movies. But, I’m seventy years old now and we just don’t know what’s going to happen with that. We still have The Horse and His Boy to do. We still have The Magician’s Nephew, which I’m absolutely longing to film. And of course then The Last Battle. But whether we’ll get them all done in my lifetime, I have no idea. Certainly I believe that, sooner or later, they will all be filmed of course.”

The remaining books in the series are The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, and The Last Battle. Here are a couple things that could make the upcoming sequels a bit better than the first few entries:

Make Aslan Otherworldly And Powerful

Aslan is the centerpiece of the Narnia stories, the son of the Emperor Beyond The Sea. Although he’s never given a definitive physical size by Lewis in the novels, he is described as being not an ordinary lion (‘he’s not a tame lion, you know’), or one of ordinary size.

One of my disappointments with the film versions of the Narnia Chronicles is that Aslan isn’t physically big enough, and often looks on the surface like an ordinary lion. In The Last Battle novel, he’s described as being as big as an elephant. A physically bigger and more robust version of Aslan in the upcoming movies would be welcome and more faithful to the novels.

And though Liam Neeson does an excellent job voicing Aslan, the big Lion needs a more commanding voice. Overall, Aslan needs to feel more otherworldly and powerful.

Make The White Witch Taller, Meaner, And Paler

Aslan is not the only character who needs an increase in size and gravity. The White Witch, Jadis, is also described in The Magician’s Nephew novel as being seven feet tall. Obviously, Tilda Swinton is not seven feet tall (what actress is?) – but I’m sure with a heavy dose of movie magic and special effects, they can make her look that way.

Also, Jadis needs to be more ruthless. In the The Magician’s Nephew, you get a better sense of her malice. She is imperious and evil, with a visceral hatred and fear of Aslan that inspires her cruelty. She needs to be paler, with skin that is snow white. She’s called the White Witch for a reason.

That being said, The Chronicles of Narnia films are a good example of an existing series with a large fan base being brought to film the right way. The story lines stay mostly faithful to the source material they are drawn from. Any changes feel thought-out and in the spirit of the novels. They don’t have filler or major changes made to appeal to a “larger audience”, or to “reintroduce it to a new generation”, which is a common excuse you hear from directors who rationalize watering down a series, and then rebooting it into something the existing fan base doesn’t expect, want, or recognize. It’s a film series made for the fans, as it should be. Bring on The Silver Chair.