Jim Henson’s Labyrinth is getting a sequel | Little White Lies

Incoming

Jim Henson’s Labyrinth is get­ting a sequel

14 Apr 2017

Words by Little White Lies

A person with long, wild blonde hair wearing an elaborate costume, gesturing with their hand.
A person with long, wild blonde hair wearing an elaborate costume, gesturing with their hand.
But David Bowie’s Gob­lin King won’t be return­ing in the new version.

Pre­pare to say good­bye to your child­hood, because a new ver­sion of Jim Henson’s clas­sic fam­i­ly fan­ta­sy is in the works cour­tesy of Don’t Breathe direc­tor Fede Alvarez.

Nei­ther a remake nor a reboot, it will report­ed­ly be a spir­i­tu­al sequel that takes place some­time after the events of the 1986 film, in which head­strong teen Sarah (played by Jen­nifer Con­nel­ly in one of her first roles) enters the mys­te­ri­ous and mag­i­cal realm of the Gob­lin King (David Bowie) in search of her kid­napped baby brother.

Get more Lit­tle White Lies

Labyrinth was Henson’s last film as direc­tor, and it remains one of his most beloved cre­ations. Its instant­ly recog­nis­able cast of colour­ful pup­pet char­ac­ters, cou­pled with the now icon­ic Mag­ic Dance sequence, have endeared it to gen­er­a­tions of movie fans.

Suf­fice to say we’re skep­ti­cal as to whether Alvarez will be able to recap­ture the charm of the orig­i­nal. Hope­ful­ly he will at least opt for prac­ti­cal effects over CGI creatures.

Lisa Hen­son of The Jim Hen­son Com­pa­ny is in line to pro­duce, which can only be a good thing. And it’s also been con­firmed that the Gob­lin King will not feature.

Alvarez is cur­rent­ly work­ing on The Girl in the Spider’s Web, the fol­low-up to David Fincher’s The Girl with the Drag­on Tat­too, which at the time of writ­ing is still look­ing for a female lead to replace Rooney Mara.

You might like

Two men performing on stage, one holding a microphone and the other playing a keyboard. The image uses a blue and white tone.
Incoming

The great biopic brain drain

by Callie Petch

In an age of Walk Hard knock-offs, why are the biopics that con­tin­ue to play it safe the biggest suc­cess stories?
Collage of scenes from various films and media, including characters, settings, and visual elements. Diverse mix of human figures, creatures, and abstract shapes in a variety of colours and compositions.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2025 – part two

by Little White Lies

Here’s the sec­ond half of our annu­al pre­view, fea­tur­ing upcom­ing films from Lynne Ram­say, Bong Joon-ho and many more.
Collage of scenes from various films and TV shows featuring diverse characters and settings.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2025 – part one

by Little White Lies

We’ve put togeth­er our annu­al pre­view of some excit­ing films to look out for in the next year.
A woman with dark hair in a side bun wearing a dark jacket, with a surprised expression on her face.
Incoming

Fancy winning a neon sign used in The Souvenir Part 2?

by Little White Lies

Cin­e­ma for Gaza is host­ing a char­i­ty auc­tion rais­ing funds for Med­ical Aid for Pales­tini­ans (MAP) with incred­i­ble prizes donat­ed by the likes of Til­da Swin­ton, Josh O’Con­nor, Har­ris Dick­in­son, Annie Lennox, Mike Leigh and many, many more.
Collage of scenes from various films, featuring a range of characters, settings, and visual elements.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2024 – part two

by Little White Lies

In the sec­ond half of our pre­view look­ing ahead to 2024’s upcom­ing releas­es, we look at work from David Low­ery, Lynne Ram­say, Mati Diop and many more.
Collage of diverse film stills featuring people in various settings and poses, with a range of colours, moods, and visual styles.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2024 – part one

by Hannah Strong, Charles Bramesco and David Jenkins

New year, new movies! We look ahead to the films com­ing our way in 2024 – includ­ing new projects from Bong Joon-ho, George Miller, Rose Glass and many more.