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Hot off the heels of his 2024 gothic masterpiece Nosferatu, director Robert Eggers has set his sights on yet another piece of iconic pop culture. And no, I’m not talking about Werwulf, although don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to seeing Eggers handle yet another Universal Monster. I'm talking about his plan to write and direct a sequel to the 1987 fantasy flick Labyrinth – and I already have a theory on where he will take it.
After months of rumors, Eggers has closed a deal to write and direct a Labyrinth movie. Of course, Jim Henson’s original 1986 fantasy feature is a cult favorite, so I feel that the new film should avoid revisiting any aspect of the original like a lot of sequels tend to do, and go in a completely different direction. A more horrific, post-apocalyptic, gothic direction – think Silent Hill but switch the town for a windy labyrinth and the nurses for deranged puppets.
Another wander into the maze
Although I’m sure Eggers will come up with something completely brilliant and blow us all away, adding to his already stellar filmography, I have a few ideas for what possible storylines the new movie could follow. Considering how the original film ended, with Sarah looking into her mirror at home and seeing the creatures from the labyrinth dancing around her bedroom, it is clear that the veil between both worlds has not been closed. So, with how much time has passed, it would make sense for Sarah’s daughter to look into that same mirror and somehow be pulled into that other world, then facing the same journey her mother did.
Much like the cult favorite 1999 TV movie Alice in Wonderland where Alice visits an alternate Wonderland different from what we see in Disney’s version, Eggers' new Labyrinth movie could show the maze in a new light, decades after Sarah first visited its cobbled path. Who knows, maybe time has not been kind to the labyrinth and it has turned into an even scarier place.
More goblins, ghouls, and petrifying puppets
But with no David Bowie, there is no Goblin King. The iconic musician simply cannot be replaced and so the new heroine’s (or hero’s) journey will be a little bit different. This is where Eggers's signature gothic touch can come in. Without the Goblin King to rule over it, I expect the Labyrinth to become lawless and hostile, kind of like in Mad Max or Silent Hill, where the strange surviving inhabitants are living as they please, causing carnage in a dark new world. The heroine’s walk through the new almost post-apocalyptic-like labyrinth, where the goblins and creatures have become rabid, will visit familiar spots and show how different the maze has become without any order.
Eggers is no stranger to taking already bizarre and offbeat worlds, making them even darker. His 2015 movie The Witch takes your average The Crucible-style witch trial tale and makes it even more nightmarish by including forest-dwelling baby-eating witches, whilst the filmmaker’s most recent release Nosferatu is perhaps the most chilling Dracula adaptation I have ever seen, thanks to Eggers' bold choice to present The Count as a rotting corpse rather than the handsome, seductive figure we are used to seeing with vampires. In this respect, I don't think the director will have any trouble turning the horror up a notch with Labyrinth.
All in all, I think Eggers has proved that he can handle adapting well-loved tales with care by putting his own spin on things, so I am more than excited to see what he makes of one of the best fantasy movies ever made. I just hope he keeps the puppets.
Labyrinth is available to watch on Hulu and Paramount in the US, and for free on ITVX in the UK. For more, see our list of the best fantasy movies, or keep up with upcoming movies heading your way.
