The glory of Jim Henson’s workshop will be returning later this month with Netflix’s impressive The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance TV series, which looks like it’s going to be the perfect prequel to the 1982 film. With such a big-name production and return to such a much-loved story this is clearly going to be one of Netflix’s marquee releases, alongside The Witcher. Here’s everything that you need to know about the show including age rating info, the UK release date and theme tune.
For anyone that missed the original film you’ve still got a few weeks to go until it arrives on Netflix at the end of August to catch up. However, The Dark Crystal TV series will be a prequel to the film, so you don’t really need to have seen it to be able to start watching the show.
You won’t be able to tell from the trailer below, but Netflix has pulled together an impressive voice cast with Taron Egerton (Rocketman), Eddie Izzard and Helena Bonham Carter starring together. You can see more on the incredible cast list below.
Release date UK and worldwide
Netflix has confirmed that The Dark Crystal TV series will have its release date on the 30th August 2019. It’ll be available available at 12 midnight Pacific Time in the US, which is 8am GMT in the UK and 3am Eastern Time (New York) in the US.
Age of Resistance will have 10 episodes in total with a run time of 60-minutes per episode, so there’s a combined 10-hours of viewing packed into the release. When you compare that to the 93-minutes of the original film it’s clear that the TV series is going to do a whole lot more character development and exploration of Thra in more detail.
All 10 episodes will be available to stream at the same time, so you can either binge through them all in Jim Henson haze of epic proportions or drop feed yourself morsels of the TV series like you’re Charlie Bucket.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resitance cast
Taron Egerton leads the main cast members voicing the Gelfling Rian. He’s joined by Anya Taylor-Joy as Bea and Nathalie Emmanuel (AKA Missandei from Game Of Thrones) as to complete the trio of Gelflings that discover a dark secret about the Skeksis. Eddie Izzard plays Cadia, Helena Bonham Carter’s stars as Maudra Mayrin, Toby Jones plays the Librarian, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Seladon, Lena Headey as Maudra Fara, Alicia Vikander as Mira and Mark Strong as Ornica.
On the darker side of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resitance cast is Jason Isaacs (Lorca from Star Trek Discovery) as skekSo, The Emperor Of The Skeksis, along with Simon Pegg as skekSil, the Skeksis Chamberlain, and Mark Hamill as skekTek the Skeksis lead scientist. Other baddies from team Skeksis include Awkwafina (The Angry Birds Movie 2) as skekLach, Benedict Wong (Avengers Endgame) as the General, Andy Samberg as the Heretic Skeksis and Keegan-Michael Key as skekZok.
If that isn’t enough on the big name cast front, there’s also the brilliant Sigourney Weaver as the Myth Speaker.
You can follow Netflix on its official Twitter page at twitter.com/Netflix to see more about the cast in the buildup to the release date.
Theme tune
There’s a lot of The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance theme tune covered in the trailer below. It’s everything that you’d hope it would be, combining magic and fantasy with darkness, adventure and just a little upbeat hope to set things up for what looks it’s going to be a very exciting TV series on Netflix.
The song starts off slow with piano notes and hushed vocals that touch on the seeming innocence of Thra before the events that take place in Age Of Resistance. The strings kick in to build the pace with some heavy drum beats and a very dramatic flourish at the end of trailer.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance age rating and parents guide
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resitance age rating for the UK has been confirmed by the British Board of Film Classification as a PG. It follows the same classification for the original 1982 film, with mild fantasy violence, threat, and a few scary scenes to be aware of with the sinister Skeksis providing the majority of the darker sections of both the film and the Netflix show. As a PG it’s for general viewing and down to the parent or guardian’s discretion, but there are some scenes that may unsettle younger children (under 8-years-old).
In terms of a parents guide, there are darker themes coming through in the episodes, carrying on from the tone of the trailer below. There will definitely be a few scary moments, or at least scary moments for the younger kids in your family, so you can base a lot on whether or not they scare easily. If they do then you might want to hold off on letting them watch the Netflix fantasy TV series.
Trailer
Check out the trailer below to see the TV series in action and you can watch the show at www.netflix.com/gb/title/80148535.
