Why Led Zeppelin Finally Let ‘Stairway’ be Used in a Movie

Award-winning movie maker Greta Gerwig has revealed how she persuaded Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to let her use Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” in the trailer for her upcoming Narnia movie.

Based on and named after the CS Lewis novel The Magician’s Nephew, it’s set for release on Feb. 12 and stars Daniel Craig, Meryl Streep and others.

The extended trailer, launched this week, heavily features Zeppelin’s 1971 classic. Other musical influences on what she called her “world made out of music” include David Bowie and Todd Rundgren.

“It’s an epic song,” she said of “Stairway” in a conversation with Stephen Colbert. “It’s an amazing song. It’s a narrative. It’s about a spiritual journey.”

She continued: “It’s about the true path of enlightenment and spirituality, and then this path of false idols and the wrong roads you can go down.

“And I was like, ‘This is exactly the story of this movie.’ It really is a spiritual quest and a spiritual journey. So to me, this was the song that made sense to introduce [the movie] into the world.”

Watch the Trailer for ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’

Gerwig noted that Page and Plant had previously refused all attempts to license the song. “They had not let it be used in anything,” she emphasized. Her solution, she added, was to let the pair see an early cut of her film.

“I showed them and I talked to them, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, and I was so moved that they allowed me to use the song,” she said. “They did it because they saw the heart of the story in the film.

Jimmy Page Calls Greta Gerwig a Cinema Powerhouse

“And they too love CS Lewis, and they have a reverence for his work. The whole thing was very fortuitous… I’m so happy that it got to be this song.”

When the trailer was released, Page said via social media: “I had the privilege of meeting Greta Gerwig, a powerhouse in the world of cinema. She is a switched-on creative, as seen by way of Little Women, Lady Bird and Barbie, and the soon-to-be-released Narnia movie. I am thrilled that she chose ‘Stairway to Heaven’ in the trailer for her film.”

Gerwig expressed hope that viewers would “feel like they’ve been on an adventure,” adding: “I hope when they leave the theater, they want to make something – a song or a cake or a painting. Making something is an act of hope.”