Pre-production Initially conceived as a feature-length sequel to
The Dark Crystal titled
The Power of the Dark Crystal, the project was for years in a state of
development hell. In 2012, director
Louis Leterrier expressed an interest in joining Jim Henson Productions in their project shortly after the release of
Clash of the Titans, hoping to interest large studios, but was repeatedly turned down as, according to him, they were only interested in
Transformers, and many executives had never heard of
The Dark Crystal. It was during this impasse that Leterrier decided to shoot a prequel series rather than a film sequel because of the richness of material available in
Jim Henson and
Frank Oz's notes on the events leading up to the original film.
Lisa Henson identified the "Wall of Destiny" from the original film as a "jumping point": "What was that culture? What was lost? What was that beautiful Gelfling civilization?" Jeff Addiss, Will Matthews and Javier Grillo Marxuach, all fans of
The Dark Crystal, were subsequently hired as writers. The project was eventually sold to
Netflix after Leterrier found a studio executive who shared the team's enthusiasm for the original film.
Development In May 2017, it was announced that
The Jim Henson Company, in association with Netflix, would produce a
prequel to the film
The Dark Crystal. The series, written by Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews, and
Javier Grillo-Marxuach, began filming in the
United Kingdom in November 2017 with
Louis Leterrier serving as director. Addiss and Matthews serve as showrunners for the series. At
New York Comic Con in 2018, Leterrier insisted that the series would depend on
puppetry and not
CGI, except for the use of
green screens to remove
puppeteers. On December 17, 2018, the 36th anniversary of the original film's release, the voice cast was revealed, as well as some images of the main Gelfling characters. On May 30, 2019, Netflix released a teaser trailer and poster for the series, announcing its official release date on August 30, 2019. Similar to the original film, voiceovers for the series were recorded after the bulk of filming was done, with the voice actors having to match their performances to both the lip movements and scratch track voices of the puppeteers. with
The Muppets veteran
Dave Goelz and
The Dark Crystals concept artist
Brian Froud participating in performing and designing the characters. Aside from Froud's new sketches, the original film's tie-in book,
The World of the Dark Crystal, was used as a reference point. Other sources of inspiration in building the world of Thra included
Game of Thrones and
Avatar: The Last Airbender. According to design supervisor
Toby Froud (who played the baby Toby in
Labyrinth), the show makes use of 20 principal puppets, with an additional 90 for secondary roles. Unlike the original film, the Gelfling puppets require only two puppeteers, as opposed to four in
The Dark Crystal, thus permitting greater freedom of movement. Also, while the animatronic components of the original film's Gelfling puppets were controlled via cables, the mechanical parts of the new Gelflings were remotely operated via a modified
Wii controller. ==Marketing==