The Dark Crystal Prequel Series Coming To Netflix

[Q2UnME]

RE: Trailer ....

I thought the trailer was awesome and faithful to most of the original designs. It's been so long since I've seen Dark Crystal that I'm going to have to watch it again before jumping into this new series. Looking forward to this.

Q2

 

[JD]

They just added it to Netflix, I'm assuming in preparation for the series, so you can watch it there.

It looks like none of the voice actors from the original are back; they've gone for celebrity voices this time. Although it's clear from the trailer that whoever's playing the Chamberlain is imitating the distinctive "Hmmmmmm" mannerism that Barry Dennen gave the character.

And yeah, Whitmire's departure was announced in 2017 but apparently it happened late in 2016. From what I've heard of Matt Vogel as the new Kermit, I think he captures Kermit's original voice and personality much better than Whitmire did.

At least with this taking place either hundreds or thousands of years before the movie, any differences in how the returning characters sound can be explained by them just being younger.
I watched on the Netflix app on my PS4, and it looks even better on my TV than it did on my computer.

As for the trailer...It looks very good, though part of me feels like they were a little TOO faithful to the original in some ways. The Gelflings for example still seem to suffer from that expressionless, dead, doll-eyed look that always stopped me from fully investing in the original movie.

The Gelflings actually did look a bit more expressive on the bigger screen where you can see more of the details. There is still a bit of the dead eye look you are talking about, but I think a lot of that comes down to the overall design and way they are built, and to get rid of it completely you'd probably have to pretty drastically change their design, to the point that they wouldn't even be recognizable as Gelflings.

 

[Marc]

I haven't seen the film in decades but recall that the Gelfings were pretty much exterminated to prevent the prophecy coming true.

So I'm wondering the new series will address that issue. It wouldn't be the first time a genocide has featured prominently in a tv series (BSG comes to mind) but it also might be a little to dark for this series.

 

[JD]

I've been wondering about that too. I could see them hinting at it at the end without actually showing the event itself.

 

[137th Gebirg]

They will do more than allude to it, I think. There were several scenes in the teaser of a white glittery fluid moving through tubes into a bowl. I believe that to be Gelfling essence, or “Vlaya”. We saw this process imposed on a number of Podlings and Kira in the original film and I suspect they will delve deeper into the Scientist’s shady practices, basically harvesting the very thing that caused the Gelfling extinction in the first place in order to preserve the Emperor’s “youth” over the many hundreds of years since the Sundering.

I wonder if the series will explore the languages that they come up with in the original and was later overdubbed after test audiences decided they didn’t like reading a lot of subtitles. The Skekses, Ur’ru, Pods, Gelflings and even Aughra had their own languages written up. “Vlaya” became “essence”, “Hakhskeekah” (sp?) became “Trial by Stone”, “Ur’ru” became mystics, and so on.

 

[JD]

They will do more than allude to it, I think. There were several scenes in the teaser of a white glittery fluid moving through tubes into a bowl. I believe that to be Gelfling essence, or “Vlaya”. We saw this process imposed on a number of Podlings and Kira in the original film and I suspect they will delve deeper into the Scientist’s shady practices, basically harvesting the very thing that caused the Gelfling extinction in the first place in order to preserve the Emperor’s “youth” over the many hundreds of years since the Sundering.

So was it pretty much just the Scientist's extracting the Vlaya that wiped out the Gelflings rather than a war or anything like that?
My only experience with The Dark Crystal so far is the movie, Creation Myths and the novelizations, so there are some gaps in knowledge.
It sounds like the show actually will be staying consistent with JM Lee's novels that have been coming out the last few years. Anybody read them and know how they might related to each other?
Amazon has The Art and Making of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance coming out on November 5th. It's $50, but depending on what I end up thinking of the series, I might just have to splurge and get it. TDC is one of a very limited number of franchises where I'd actually be willing to spend that kind of money on something like this.

 

[137th Gebirg]

It’s been a long time since I read the original novelization (pretty much when the first film was released), but IIRC, since the Skekses knew that Gelflings were prophesied to be the instruments of their destruction, their thoughts were, why waste them? They need to all die anyway, but before we wipe them all out, we’ll extract their essence for our own purposes. After the Gelflings were all wiped out, they continued to extract Vlaya from the more sustainable Podling slave source, albeit not as potent.

The Skekses somehow retained their technological knowledge that they brought with them to Thra when they were still united as the UrSkeks. They created the Garthim, which were based on crustacean creatures from their home world - not native to Thra - which is why they collapsed when the crystal was healed by Jen and the Skekses and Ur’ru were rejoined.

I’m really hoping they more deeply explore this tech and mythology that they only touched upon in the movie. It’s a rich world (and probably my all-time favorite movie, like ever) which is completely unique and original in cinematic history. Sure, at its core it is a “battle between good and evil” with a prophesy and fantasy creatures thrown in, but the creativity behind its design was just a masterpiece and possibly the apex of Henson’s career (IMO, of course) . I’ve been waiting for this for nearly 40 years.

 

[JD]

I think some of that does sound vaguely familiar from the novel. I read it too, my memory just isn't that great, so I've already forgotten a lot of it.

 

[Ithekro]

It was a long war from what I recall. A few hundred years.

 

[JD]

They announced at E3 today that they will be doing a tie-in game for Age of Resistance for the Nintendo Switch called Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics. I'm a Playstation person, so I'm a little frustrated that it's only going to be coming to the Switch.
According to the story on Io9 it's inspired by Final Fantasy Tactics, which I have never played.

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[JD]

The series will also be getting a 12 issue prequel comic book series from Boom! Studios, the regular publisher for comics based on Jim Henson Company IP.
With this, the novels, Age of Resistance, and Creation Myths we're going to have pretty extensive history of Thra leading up to the movie.

 

[Ithekro]

They did spend a lot of time designing the world, and we only got a glimpse of it in the 1982 movie.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Lena Headey, Sigourney Weaver and Awkwafina Join Dark Crystal Cast

 

[JD]

They've revealed some more cast memebers:
Lena Headey as Maudra Fara
Benedict Wong as The General
Awkwafina as The Collector
Sigourney Weaver as The Myth Speaker
Hannah John-Kammen as Naia
Dave Goelz as Baffi, a Fizzgig

IGN's article also has a gallery which 33 different characters and who is voicing them
Some of these we already knew about, but a lot of these are the first time I've seen a character connected with the actors:
Taron Egerton voices Rian
Anya Taylor-Joy voices Brea
Nathalie Emmanuel voices Deet
Marl Hamil voices The Scientist
Alicia Vikander voices Mira
Eddie Izzard voices Cadia
Mark Strong voices Ordon
Toby Jones voices The Librarian
Jason Isaac voices The Emperor
Gugu Mbatha-Raw voices Seladon
Theo James voices Rek'yr
Keegan-Micheal Key voices The Ritual Master
Helena Bonham-Carter voices the All-Maudra
Natalie Dormer voices Onica
Andy Samberg voices The Heretic
Simon Pegg voices The Chamberlain
Caitriona Balfe voices Tavra
Louise Gold voices Maudra Argot
Shazad Latif voices Kylan
Harris Dickinson voices Gurjin
Neil Sterenberg voices The Scroll-Keeper
Victor Yerrid voices Hup
Ralph Ineson voices The Hunter
Olafur Darri Olafsson voices The Archer
Alice Dinnean voices The Ornamentalist
Donna Kimball voices Aughra
Harvey Fierstein voices The Gorrmand
EDIT: Woops, ninja'd.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Damn, they keep adding more and more excellent talent to this cast! Plus, it's great to see Dave Goelz included.

 

[JD]

Yeah, and we have Louise Gold too. I didn't even realize she was still active, she goes all the way back to the original Muppet Show.
And it looks like pretty much everybody who was around in the first movie has been recast. I'm very curious to hear Simon Pegg's take on the Chamberlain and Hamill's Emperor.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

This cast list is insane. It's like one of those Robert Altman anthology films.

 

[JD]

Definitely, it's probably one of the best TV casts I've ever seen.
Can anybody remember if any of the articles have said whether or not the episodes are 1/2 hour or 1 hour?

 

[JD]

OOps, I was telling about the cast and I saw that Mark Hamill is The Scientist, not the Emperor.

 

[Ithekro]

There are two Skeksis missing (or just not voiced): the Slave Master (SkekNa) and the Garthim Master (SkekUng) are both missing from the lineup.
I don't know The Heretic.