Netflix has released the first official trailer for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Based on The Dark Crystal, Jim Henson’s groundbreaking 1982 feature film, this 10-episode series tells a new epic story, set many years before the events of the movie, and is realized using classic puppetry with cutting edge visual effects.
The voice cast is led by Taron Egerton (Kingsman), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), and Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones). Other voices include a pretty star-studded cast such as Helena Bonham Carter, Natalie Dormer, Theo James, Toby Jones, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mark Strong, Alicia Vikander, Mark Hamill, Jason Isaacs, Keegan-Michael Key, Simon Pegg, Andy Samberg, and Donna Kimball.
Check out the first trailer for Netflix’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance below:
The fantasy adventure series will star an ensemble of fantastical, state-of-the-art creatures created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™ and Brian Froud, the original feature’s conceptual designer. And, as the trailer shows, the Henson knack for doing as much in-camera as possible is on full display. Very little CGI, vast matte-style production design, and loads and loads of muppets!
Louis Leterrier (Now You See Me, The Incredible Hulk) will executive produce the series and direct. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is being produced by The Jim Henson Company and executive produced by Leterrier, Lisa Henson, and Halle Stanford. Longtime Henson collaborator Rita Peruggi serves as producer and Henson’s Blanca Lista is on board as a co-executive producer. Leading the writing are co-executive producers Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, and Javier Grillo-Marxuach.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Leterrier said he was determined to make the series look as similar as possible to the original film, which meant the use of insistence on puppetry rather than CG. “I was not fighting against anyone; I was fighting against common sense and practicality,” he says with a laugh. “It’s so, so complicated to build a puppet, hire puppeteers, all that stuff. We chose the long, hardest road, and we’re very thankful [we did]. It looks absolutely stunning.”
Check out the beautiful poster for the series as well:
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance arrives on Netflix starting Friday, August 30.
Sources: Netflix, Jim Henson Company, Disney
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