Rumours are circulating that Robert Eggers might be bringing the Goblin Kingdom back to our screens with a sequel to Labyrinth and it could be incredible…
The Hollywood rumour mill never stops and occasionally it spews out an idea that sounds far too good to be true. Robert Eggers has just overseen the release of Nosferatu, his highly anticipated, critically acclaimed reboot of the old F.W. Murnau (and Werner Herzog) films [read our ★★★★★ review here]. Whilst Eggers, an intensely inimitable auteur has crafted four acclaimed cult films now, a good box office showing (especially after the disappointing returns for The Northman) can only help him make more passion projects.
His work stands out as some of the best in recent cinema history and Eggers hasn’t been afraid to delve into well-trodden ideas, folklore, literature and fairy tales to tell stories with an intricate auteur vision. He’s also taken a leap into the world of remakes. Hollywood is driven largely by remakes, reboots and sequels and it’s not often a legitimate visionary will take that step, especially on hallowed turf. We’ve seen Denis Villeneuve blaze a trail in the world of Blade Runner and hunt for spice in the once deemed impossible-to-navigate world of Frank Herbert’s Dune (already adapted on the big screen with mixed success by David Lynch). So occasionally, the humble reboot (remake, or sequel) isn’t merely handed over to a functional director tasked with churning out a production line product, sometimes the film is given due care and handed over to a director capable of making something their own.
One long-anticipated sequel is Labyrinth 2. The original initially bombed at the box office and became a huge hit on video, growing the kind of cult following, often driven by rose-tinted nostalgia, that very few one-off films have managed. From spinoff stories to limitless amounts of fan fiction, Labyrinth and the Goblin Kingdom has continued away from cinema in one way or another and in a World where David Bowie is no longer with us, the prospect of a second film now leaves die-hard fans mostly trepidatious.
Labyrinth is an all-time favourite of mine, born of those early joyous and transportive ventures into a dazzling and beautifully constructed world, to still appreciating the film as an adult. It’s impeccably crafted with an underlyingly impish (and Python-esque) humour and the soundtrack is incredible (because it’s Bowie after all). Does it immediately jump out as a project Eggers would take on?
Before these new rumours, the long-gestating project was last left in the hands of Scott Derrickson, who would potentially do something fun but would be less likely to have a creative vision and creative control that Eggers would. Labyrinth is also a film that has kept such adoring fans, not merely to attend cosplay sing-a-long big screen showings and childhood nostalgia, but because it has hidden depths/oubliettes.
The film can be read as a paranoid schizophrenic delusion, with a host of nuggets and suggestions (both visual and in suggestive dialogue) that Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) is imagining the whole thing. The visual clues run deeper too, with Sarah’s mother briefly appearing in a bedroom photo with the hint that she’s a musical star dating a co-star (played by Bowie in one photo). Sarah’s also a fantasy/fairy tale-obsessed kid reading the likes of Alice in Wonderland and a ‘Labyrinth’ book that effectively holds the story she’s about to play out.
There’s plenty of deeper psychology too. A girl coming to an age of confusing feelings but an impending weight of adulthood (and the responsibilities that come with it). She also wants to feel wanted, the centre of attention (the heroine of her own adventure). She wants what her mother has, that stardom, the Bowie-like lover (who she’s drawn to and fears in equal measure), and no child to weigh her down. She soon realises within her fantasy that giving up her baby brother to the Goblins was a mistake and sets about rectifying that, moving time and space to bring him home (and perhaps mirroring her own desire for her mother to come and get her).
For a kids’ film, Labyrinth has a lot of complexities, both those left there by the filmmakers (notably Jim Henson, Terry Jones and George Lucas) and others that a viewer can theorise. Guillermo del Toro would later make Pan’s Labyrinth which has a lot of similar elements, played as darker, more direct and tragic. It’s this subtext that makes a director like Eggers one of only a few perfect choices to make a worthy sequel.
Going by Eggers’ first four films, the idea of him making a kids’ film seems unlikely, but the 80s was rife with previously high-brow directors making surprisingly dark kids’ movies. Ridley Scott’s Legend, Peter Yates’ Krull, Mike Hodges’ Flash Gordon, Wolfgang Petersen’s The NeverEnding Story and even Irvin Kershner, who was brought on to direct The Empire Strikes Back. It’s almost a running joke how dark kids’ films used to be and if you don’t believe me check the displaced heads and the Wheelers in Return to Oz.
Is there a big market for new younger fans to welcome a Labyrinth sequel? I’d argue that with the failure of the Dark Crystal TV reboot and the near wiped-from-existence Willow reboot, fans who’ve grown up on these are the core audience. Newer fans tend to be the kids of the parents who grew up on Labyrinth. My daughter loves it too. So whether Eggers would make a PG/PG13 film, or make an even darker vision catering to adults remains to be seen. I suspect that, as a cinephile with such eclectic tastes (he effectively remade Conan the Barbarian as The Northman), he’s a fan of the Henson classic.
Unsurprisingly there have already been suggestions of who might play the Goblin King, with Alexander Skarsgard being mentioned. He’dundoubtedly do something interesting with a role like that. Eggers has a very direct leaning into old-school techniques and practical over CGI wherever possible, so I’d expect puppets galore and a vast array of hand built sets to adequately bring the Goblin Kingdom and its surrounding labyrinth back to life. It was one of the beauties of the original film, that everything within this vibrant and visually incredible world is physically there on screen.
Here comes the dampener. Do I expect to see a Labyrinth 2 from Robert Eggers any time soon? I suspect it’s a fleeting conversation already had that isn’t close to official and may fall by the wayside. In some ways, it’s less of an overtly huge gamble (for Eggers and the studio). It’s not like taking on a Star Wars project knowing that in all likelihood you’ll have to relinquish a lot of creative control to the executives, but it still feels just a little bit too fanciful to come true.
My own feelings on a prospective Labyrinth sequel have always been an air of antipathy. I’ve never wanted one and I was the same with Blade Runner…that is until Denis Villeneuve was given the reigns, which also felt too good to be true when first rumoured. However, should Eggers get the green light and take this to production I will be excited and curious to see what approach he takes and what he can make of the lore. From the perspective of folklore, mythology and fairy tales, Eggers has incorporated them in every film so far, so he’s well versed for something like Labyrinth.
Do you think Eggers will make Labyrinth 2 and are you excited at the prospect? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Tom Jolliffe
