{"id":1104310,"date":"2026-01-28T00:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=513239"},"modified":"2026-01-28T00:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:07:14","slug":"nosferatu-director-robert-eggers-is-making-a-labyrinth-sequel-but-who-could-replace-david-bowie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/nosferatu-director-robert-eggers-is-making-a-labyrinth-sequel-but-who-could-replace-david-bowie\/","title":{"rendered":"Nosferatu director Robert Eggers is making a Labyrinth sequel \u2014\u00a0but who could replace David Bowie?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hot on the heels of yesterday\u2019s news that Nosferatu<\/a><\/em> director Robert Eggers<\/a> will follow his vampire movie with a 13-century werewolf thriller called Werwulf<\/em><\/a>, and today\u2019s news that Nosferatu <\/em>is in the running for four Academy Awards<\/a>, the Eggers news drops keeps landing: Deadline reports<\/a> that Eggers has signed a deal to direct a sequel to Jim Henson\u2019s 1986 fantasy Labyrinth<\/em>. <\/p>\n

To anyone who saw Nosferatu<\/em> (or the earlier news that Eggers was in talks on a Labyrinth <\/em>project), that maybe isn\u2019t the biggest possible<\/em> surprise \u2014 all the blood, perverse monster-sex, and full-frontal male nudity in Nosferatu<\/em> aside, there are elements in the script that feel surprisingly Labyrinth<\/em>-esque, like the revelation that Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) maybe summoned up her personal destructive monster Count Orlok (Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd) out of unformed adolescent desire, and gave him power over her that she has to take back in order to survive. A conversation between the two of them, where he insists that she summoned him but that they\u2019re now fated for each other so she needs to surrender to him, feels like a darker mirror of the conversation the Goblin King Jareth (David Bowie) and his teenage summoner\/victim Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) have at the end of Labyrinth<\/em>, where he demands her fear and love, and offers himself as her slave in return.<\/p>\n

A darker, more adult take on Labyrinth <\/em>might be a natural fit for audiences that grew up with the movie.\u00a0The film has a surprisingly strong strain of lust and psychosexual tension for a Jim Henson project. And a sequel, with Connelly reprising her role and facing Jareth in adulthood, could be an interesting thread to pull on. (Or not, given how Beetlejuice Beetlejuice<\/a><\/em> tossed away its similarly intriguing reunion between a supernatural stalker and the adult woman he chased around when she was a teenager.)<\/p>\n

What exactly the sequel would entail is unclear. The Deadline report says there\u2019s no plot summary or cast information, though it lists Jim Henson\u2019s children Brian Henson (puppeteer coordinator and the voice of Hoggle in the original Labyrinth<\/em>) and Lisa Henson (CEO of The Jim Henson Company) as producers, and says Eggers and his writing partner Sj\u00f3n (The Northman<\/em>) will co-write the script.<\/p>\n

The real problem with a direct sequel, though, is \u2014 who could possibly replace David Bowie as Jareth? As much as the movie revolves around the Henson workshop\u2019s puppets and Brian Froud\u2019s creature designs, Bowie was the movie\u2019s breakout star. Fans\u2019 memories of and conversations about the film (and their fan art, cosplay, and even annual masquerade ball<\/a>) have centered on him for decades, and even the spin-off comic series Labyrinth: Coronation<\/a> <\/em>focused on his backstory. The 1986 Labyrinth <\/em>is also built around Bowie performing original songs he wrote for the film.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n