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Labyrinth Sequel Has A Script & Is Moving Forward, Says Director
Director Fede Alvarez says the Labyrinth sequel has a script and is still moving forward. By the time the Evil Dead and Don't Breathe filmmaker became officially attached to helm the project back in 2017, the followup to Jim Henson's cult 1986 fantasy musical had already been in development for several years. A Labyrinth remake was even rumored to be in the pipeline at one point, before Guardians of the Galaxy co-screenwriter Nicole Perlman (who was working on the sequel at the time) clarified that this was not the case.
The original Labyrinth was directed by Henson and starred David Bowie as Jareth, the Goblin King, a trouble-making fellow (with a penchant for singing Bowie-esque pop songs) who kidnaps a teenaged Jennifer Connelly's infant brother and places him at the center of (what else?) an elaborate labyrinth, after Connelly's character, Sarah Williams, wishes her younger sibling away. It's not altogether clear yet if the Labyrinth sequel will bring back Connelly as a now-adult Sarah, much less recast the role of Jareth following Bowie's passing. However, by the sound of it, we might be getting some insight on both matters in the foreseeable future.
Alvarez is currently making the rounds promoting his new film, The Girl in the Spider's Web, which gave Fandango the chance to ask him for an update on the Labyrinth sequel. According to the director, it's a project that he and the late Jim Henson's daughter, Lisa Henson, discussed very recently:
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“I was actually having lunch yesterday with Lisa Henson and we reconnected with that project. We're very excited about it. It is basically a direct continuation of the first movie many years later, and I can't tell you much more about it... but we have a script, and we're very excited about it so we'll see where that goes. Like always, it takes time and effort to put those movies together because they're larger than life. But that's one of the projects that I'm very excited about.”
Lisa Henson is the current Jim Henson Company CEO and has been making a concerted push to revive her father's 1980s fantasy properties of late, between her efforts on the Labyrinth sequel and Netflix's prequel series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. With the latter project already well on its way to premiering in 2019, it sounds like the Labyrinth followup is the next priority that Henson intends to get fully off the ground and running within the next year or so. That works out well for Alvarez schedule-wise, seeing as he isn't committed to direct any other movies at the moment (now that Girl in the Spider's Web is in the can).
That said, Alvarez was non-committal when Fandango asked him if he thinks a Labyrinth sequel will actually happen after all this time, reiterating that "[All] I can tell you is that I had lunch with [Lisa Henson] yesterday and it was great". Eve so, it seems the film is closer than ever to becoming a reality, especially now that Alvarez and Jay Basu (his writing partner on Girl in the Spider's Web) have completed their screenplay. Heres' hoping that, with Alvarez "master of the reboot" at the helm and Lisa Henson producing, the sequel not only comes to pass, but ultimately proves to be worth the prolonged delay, too.
