Brian Henson Offers Enthusiastic Updates on Netflix’s THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE
Josh Millican
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It’s been over a year since we’ve gotten any solid updates on Netflix’s 10-episode series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. It’s a joint project with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and Brian Froud, who served as concept designer on the original Dark Crystal, released in 1982. Fortunately, producer Brian Henson participated in a panel at DragonCon last weekend, where he talked it up but good!
While we didn’t get any specific details, Henson’s enthusiasm suggests the series will be worth the wait. In his own words:
“It’s been shooting since last November and it’s so cool that Netflix could get behind it in such a big way so that we can do it right. I say ‘we’, but I’ve been doing Happytime Murders, so it’s really my sister’s [Lisa Henson] and Halle Stanford‘s project. They’ve really put together a great, great time in London.
“And I’ll be honest, I thought those days were gone. I thought by the 80’s, the idea of being able to walk onto a stage and see an incredible fantasy world realized was just long gone because of CG and everything like that. But they’ve really done it right. It’s great! The workmanship is just stunning, the artistic quality is right there again; what I thought maybe was lost, it’s still there. They’ll be shooting for another few weeks, and then there will be a huge amount of post-production.”
An official synopsis remains elusive, but we’d previously been told that The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is a prequel to the film; at DragonCon, Henson clarified: “OK, well, we’ve said it’s a prequel, and it’s not an immediate prequel, so it doesn’t end when the movie started. It takes place significantly earlier than when the movie took place.”
The Dark Crystal remains a beautiful anomaly over 35 years after its release. The story merged metaphysical fantasy and horror elements in a way that wasn’t dumbed-down for children. It was a sharp departure from The Muppets that made Jim Henson and Frank Oz household names, yet its status and legacy have only grown in the decades since it first hit theaters.
You can check out last year’s announcement trailer for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance below, followed by the synopsis and trailer for the original Dark Crystal.
Synopsis:
Jen (Stephen Garlick), raised by the noble race called the Mystics, has been told that he is the last survivor of his own race, the Gelflings. He sets out to try to find a shard of the dark crystal, a powerful gem that once provided balance to the universe. After the crystal was broken, the evil Skeksis used sinister means to gain control. Jen believes that he can repair the dark crystal and bring peace back to the world, if he can only find the remaining shard.
Are you a fan of The Dark Crystal? Are you excited about the prequel series coming to Netflix? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
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