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The Dark Crystal Prequel Series Coming To Netflix

Oh, I hope I'm forgiven for digging up a thread where the last post is more than a year old, but this project is still alive, and actually just announced an impressive voice cast.

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Taron Egerton voices Rian

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Nathalie Emmanuel voices Deet

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Anya Taylor Joy voices Brea

Joining them will be, among others, Helena Bonham-Carter, Natalie Dormer, Eddie Izzard, Shazad Latif, Alicia Vikander, Mark Strong, Mark Hamill, Jason Isaacs, Simon Pegg and Andy Samberg.

CBR| Mark Hamill, Simon Pegg & More Join Dark Crystal Prequel
 
Damn, you beat me to it.
I really did not expect it to have this incredible of a voice cast.
 
It looks interesting and I'm curious to see how their production values with the puppets are going to successfully compete with other comparable all-CG shows.

They also have a bit of a quandary. Since this happens not long after the Skeksis wreck the Great Crystal, which is probably around 5-700 years before the first movie, we automatically know their "resistance" is going to fail. Skeksis rule doesn't end until Jen and Kira come along to heal the Crystal permanently. This may run into a similar fundamental meta-issue that the second Star Wars trilogy had, with everyone knowing the Empire had to win that one.
 
Sometimes its more interesting to see what happened than to know what happened. In the case of the Titanic, I already know the major events of the story of the sinking of the ship, and have little interest is a love story woven into it, so I gave that movie a pass. But here, I only know that the Gartham managed to overwhelm the Gelflings and the Skeksis power was unchallenged by the time of Jenn and Kira's birth, as they became the last of their kind as children. However it appears to have taken the Skeksis a long time to exterminate the Gelfings, and the Skeksis were not always seen as totally evil (they decayed over the course of the thousand years), so we have little detail of the events that happened in those years, only the results.
 
Yeah, that's the biggest advantage this has over something like the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, we really don't know a lot of details about what exactly happened. As long as Rian, Brea, and Deet's story is interesting, I think it'll be able to hold people's interest.
 
I have to admit, I figured if there were recognizable names it would just be TV level actors who you see doing guest stints on shows NCIS.
EDIT: If one of the Skesis sounds like the Joker I am going to freak out, in a good way.:D
 
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If it really is going to be set that far in the past relative to the original movie, then knowing how it turns out isn't a problem so long as the focus of the story is on the characters and not the larger events that surround them. If those events happen to be a neigh apocalyptic fall of a civilisation into barbarism and stagnation then it's the 'Titanic' approach: i.e. you frame the story as a tragedy, or a story of survival and end it on a bitter sweet/hopeful note.

I'm actually glad this is a show instead of a movie. The original felt like Henson had *way* more lore and ideas than he could possibly fit inside a 90 minute movie which IMO makes the whole thing feel a little rushed & scatterbrained.
 
There was quite a bit that wasn't in the movie, I think a lot of the content in the novelization and the other books and comics that have come out over the years come from stuff Henson and Froud came up with.
 
Correct! In addition to the Gelfling and Pod languages, there were also two other languages that were never seen on-screen for the Mystics (UrRu) and Skeksis. The BRD/DVD's show a lot of the original takes before they were re-dubbed in English.

So hyped about this. HensonCo announced their Netflix show over a year ago and nothing since. I was starting to lose hope, thinking it was going the way of the TOS BSG movie, but it looks like it finally caught a tailwind. Maybe Netflix should do BSG! :lol:
 
I'm really pissed they never posted the trailer they showed at NYCC online anywhere. I still keep checking the Netflix and Jim Henson Company Youtube pages about once every week or two hoping they'll post it. At this point I'd even take something shot on someone's phone from the back of the room.
 
No that one came out back when they first announced the series, I believe the one at NYCC had real footage from the show.
 
Io9 has a few more little bits of info in their story about the cast and pictures. Each of the three main Gelflings are from a different one of the seven Gelfling tribes, Deet is a Grottan, Breee is a Vapra, and Rian is a member of the Stonewood clan and a guard at the Crystal Palace.

Here's the Official Dark Crystal Website's encyclopedia entries on those clans:
The Grottan Clan
A mysterious, secretive breed who dwelled in perpetual darkness in the Caves of Grot. Generations in the shadows left them with an extreme sensitivity to light—and solid black eyes that could see in the dark and large ears to make out even the faintest of echoes. The Grottan clan is said to number less than three dozen, and their life span is told to be unheard of, lasting three to four times as long as other Gelfling.
The Stonewood Clan
Known in ancient times as the Woodland Folk, this clan was a proud and ancient people who dwelled on the fertile lands near and within the Dark Wood. They made their main home in Stone-in-the-Wood, the historical home of Jarra-Jen. His courageous and daring exploits fortified the Stonewood’s perception of themselves as warriors, heroes, and adventurers. Many Stonewood Gelfling were valuable guards at the Castle of the Crystal. They were farmers and cobblers and makers of tools. They were inventive, but pastoral; like their sigil animal, they were peaceful but fierce when threatened.
The Vapra Clan
The Vapra (VÆ-prah) clan was a beautiful race with white hair, fair skin, and gossamer-winged women. Considered the oldest of the Gelfling clans, the Vapra reside in cliffside villages along the northern coasts, making their capital in Ha’rar. The Vapra’s maudra at the time of The Gelfling Gathering, Mayrin, doubled as All-Maudra, matriarch leader of all the Gelfling clans. Vapra were skilled at camouflage; their vliyaya focuses on light-changing magic, allowing them to become nearly invisible.
Click to expand...
I had also forgotten that one of the new creatures featured on the show was the winning design from a fan contest. Io9 has a picture of the design in their article.
 
I’ve a Henson nut since childhood so I can’t wait to see this. The Dark Crystal was Jim Henson’s favorite project, his hope was that would be successful so he could make more movies like it. I’m glad his dream is actually getting to come true. The new Gelflings look amazing. The originals were already impressive but I can’t wait to see how much more they can do now. They already seem more emotive and more lifelike.

I’d love for the Henson Creature Shop to get another project like Farscape that just gave them an open license to create new creatures on a regular basis.
 
Have you read the comics? I know it's not the same as more of the show, but it's a pretty good replacement. I've only read the first miniseries so far, and it was great. The stories all come from Rockne S. O'Bannon, so it's pretty much canon, at least as long as we don't get an onscreen continuation.
 
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