Netflix gave fans a first look at
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance at New York Comic Con, and judging by the footage screened for fans, it effortlessly recaptures the magic of the original Jim Henson film, now with an even bigger scope. A prequel series set before the events of the 1982 movie,
Age of Resistance is directed and executive produced by Louis Leterrier (Now You See Me), and executive produced by Jim Henson's daughter, Lisa Henson.
The show has been in development for seven years and took a year to film, according to Leterrier, who promised the series will have a full puppet cast and no CGI or human characters - the only use of CGI is
"erasing rods, erasing puppeteers," he said.
"The thing that really changed [in terms of technology] is being able to erase puppeteers. We can do different types of puppeteering, more action-oriented puppeteering."
Very little has been revealed about the plot of
Age of Resistance until now besides the fact that it's a prequel, but Henson gave the first details at the Comic Con panel.
"In the original movie, Jen and Kira stop at the Wall of Destiny and see the ruins of what was once a beautiful Gelfling culture, so we used that as a jumping off point... what was that culture, and what was lost? What was that beautiful Gelfing civilization? And it's very developed, we have many different groups of Gelflings in different geography, different settings ... it's extremely rich. We took as inspiration shows like Last Airbender, Game of Thrones... shows that have a lot of depth and a lot of detail built into the worldbuilding."
Henson revealed that many people have asked her what the biggest technological advancement has been between the new series and the film, and she admitted,
"It's green screen; we're removing puppeteers, but Jim didn't have the ability to do that at the time of the movie, so it's an advance on the film. And we're so pleased that's still pure puppetry. We'll have a very simple scene of characters doing what seems like a simple gesture, but it takes a team of puppeteers... We have no human cast to join us because we have no humans in the show, but I think we did have every puppeteer in England, it was a massive endeavor."
Aside from that, the creative team aimed to make the show as faithful to the original as they could.
"The tone is exactly the same, the look is the same; we shot in VistaVision - you're gonna love it," Leterrier promised.
