N E W S
   2006 | 2005 | 2004
   2003 | 2002 | 2001    2000 | 1999 | 1998
   Submit News

NEWS

Beaker receives the Muppets Webby Award

"The Doozers" preschool series under development

Sesame Street visits Scrubs on January 27

Emmet Otter musical debuts at Goodspeed Opera House

Houston Henson screenings December 5-7

More >>

MERCHANDISE

"Follow that Bird" onto 25th Anniversary DVD

"Street Gang" book and CD set debut

Pepe's first book reveals secrets of life, love and living large

The Christmas Toy comes to DVD

HIT announces Fraggle Rock Complete Series DVD Collection

More >>

Dark Crystal sequel may be headed to DVD

The film has been in development since 2005 with a scheduled debut in the next 12-18 months; Henson continues to maintain their original vision for a theatrical release

By Phillip Chapman, Muppet Central
Updated: January 8, 2008

For the past year, news has been fairly quiet on Henson's development of the planned sequel to the beloved 1982 film, "The Dark Crystal". The Latino Review posted the following update about the forthcoming Dark Crystal sequel on it's web site.

...fans of the original Dark Crystal will be excited to know about a sequel also being released this year on DVD:

Set on the mythical planet Thra, the follow-up takes place years after the ending of the original and begins with Jen and Kira welcoming to their castle a guest from the center of the planet, Thurma the fire girl, who, in a desperate attempt to save her people, re-shatters the Crystal.

“The first few times it came up we thought it would be impossible because the first movie was such a huge production in its day. How could we even do something like that because it was such a huge undertaking the first time around?” admits [Lisa] Henson. “But then we started talking about a very interesting hybrid of puppets and CGI, and we realized it was doable and we got very excited about it.”

Queen Kira from the upcoming film, "The Power of the Dark Crystal".

What is most interesting about this report is the possibillity that "The Power of The Dark Crystal" may not be a theatrical release as many hoped and was initially announced. Instead, "The Power of The Dark Crystal" may be released immediately to DVD in late 2008 or early 2009.

Fans have hoped that "The Power of The Dark Crystal" and the announced Fraggle Rock movie would help to revolutionize the company that Jim Henson founded, however, questions now arise over how much success a made-for-DVD sequel can have. This news may also increase the possibility that the Fraggle Rock movie will become a direct-to-DVD release as well.

In May 2006, Brian Henson confirmed that “We are trying to pull the business pieces together on a Dark Crystal sequel. That one’s pretty far along. It’s got a good, strong script, a great vision for how to do it and we’re just trying to [put it together].”

Award-winning animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, who created the hit series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory was announced as the director of "The Power of The Dark Crystal" in February 2006.

Variety originally reported that a sequel was in development in May 2005.

Editor's Note: Nicole Goldman, vice president of marketing and publicity for The Jim Henson Company has issued the following official statement related to the film's release.

“We are thrilled and grateful that fans are so interested in the progress of ‘Power of the Dark Crystal’ – an especially important project to us that will require great care and attention throughout the production process.  A project of this scale takes a lot of time and energy and we continue to work through the development phase, maintaining our original vision of a film for theatrical release that combines traditional puppetry and animatronics with cutting edge CG animation. We’ll be sure to keep fans up to date as more information is confirmed.”

Discuss this story

E-mail news alerts

   MORE HENSON NEWS

• Emmet Otter musical debuts at Goodspeed Opera House
• Houston Henson screenings December 5-7
• The Christmas Toy comes to DVD
• Henson announces Emmet Otter musical
• Henson's "Sid the Science Kid" coming to PBS in September
• Emmet Otter takes the stage
• Empire acquires rights to Jim Henson screenplay
• Fraggles and Farscape now available on iTunes

home | news | collectibles | articles | forum | guides | radio | cards | help

Fan site Muppet Central created by Phillip Chapman. Multimedia design by James V. Carroll. Updates by Muppet Central Staff. All Muppets, Bear characters and photos are copyright of the Muppets Holding Company. Sesame Street characters and photos are copyright of Sesame Workshop. Fraggle Rock, Creature Shop and similar likenesses are copyright of The Jim Henson Company.