UPDATE:
We’ll be recording a live show on Facebook on 24th September 3pm PST / 25th September 8am AEST on Facebook to go into detail about the news and much more. Hope you can join us – Philip
I think most of you have read the unfortunate news on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance being officially cancelled by Netflix.
io9 got the scoop for the breaking news which got covered by other media outlets with the news, below is the link and was well written and goes into detail on the news.
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/09/dark-crystal-age-of-resistance-has-been-cancelled-by-netflix/
Its been like an emotional roller coaster ride, from the highs of the show winning an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program along with ‘We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest’ HBO documentary to the deepest lows of its cancellation mere days later.
It sucks and was like a punch in the stomach and finding it even hard to write about this article, just very devastating news all up.
Below is the statement from Lisa Henson from io9 article that was of interest.
“We can confirm that there will not be an additional season of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. We know fans are eager to learn how this chapter of The Dark Crystal saga concludes and we’ll look for ways to tell that story in the future. Our company has a legacy of creating rich and complex worlds that require technical innovation, artistic excellence, and masterful storytelling. Our history also includes productions that are enduring, often finding and growing their audience over time and proving again and again that fantasy and science fiction genres reflect eternal messages and truths that are always relevant. We are so grateful to Netflix for trusting us to realise this ambitious series; we are deeply proud of our work on Age of Resistance, and the acclaim it has received from fans, critics and our peers, most recently receiving an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program.”
If there’s any hope from her statement is that they’ll do what they can to look for ways to continue the story and not give up.
The big question that’s on a lot of our minds right now is if the Jim Henson Company have full ownership of the show outright and if they’re able to shop the show around to a different television network or streaming service?
Is it something that can be shopped soon or is there an agreement in their contracts that stipulate waiting for several years (or more) for the contract to expiry before being able to pursue? Or something else altogether that prevents the show from continuing on elsewhere?
We know that The Jim Henson Company has a lot of other productions in the works, included revival for Fraggle Rock on Apple TV, recently launched Earth to Ned on Disney Plus and the sequel to Labyrinth is currently being written just to name a few, so I can understand that The Dark Crystal franchise will most likely be on the back burner for a good while before they consider the options available to them.
We don’t know the answers but we’ll speculate on this and much more and hopefully record a live episode of Trial By Stone about the cancellation soon, we’ll update you on social media on when we do and hope you’ll be able to join us then.
I also want to finish the article off with a big thank you to everyone who worked on Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, the show is an incredible success and so thankful that we got an amazing 10 hours of television. It was amazing and thrilling to go back to the world of Thra once again.
It’s been a surreal couple of years, from the announcement in May 2017, to its release in August 2019. It was well worth the wait and you hit a home run, knocked it out of the park brilliantly.
This show is a once in a blue moon moment, much like the original film, I never imagined in my lifetime that we’d see The Dark Crystal come back in this way with the show and I wish everyone the very best.
Thank you.
Philip Mitchell – Host and Producer of Trial By Stone: The Dark Crystal Podcast
