Netflix’sThe Dark Crystal : Age of Resistancehas arrived , and the 10 - episode season has lead us lighting the flack of resistivity and curiosity . We chatted with the creators and writer of the first time of year to get all of your most spoiler - friendly query answered , and observe out which two characters were modeled after care and detestation in Las Vegas .
The first season ended with the fires of ohmic resistance being lit and the Gelfling finding the strength and braveness to rise up against their Skeksis rulers . But it did n’t come without a monetary value , as Deet take a dangerous amount of The Darkening into herself so as to save everyone else . With a few of the Skeksis dead , and their illusion of immortality weaken , what happens next in Thra ? And how long before the Gelfling are all wipe out ?
io9 spoke with co - creators Jeff Addiss and Will Matthews , along with co - executive producer Javier Grillo - Marxuach , over the sound about the large plot points and mysteries of the time of year . We asked them about the Heretic and his good one-half , the Arathim ’s nous - control abilities , the substance of Deet ’s vision , and whether the show is hinting at way the Gelfling could pull through the come genocide . Below is our edited and condensed interview .
Deet (Nathalie Emmanual) takes a look at the big wide world.Photo: Kevin Baker (Netflix)
https://gizmodo.com/the-dark-crystal-age-of-resistance-is-the-groundbreaki-1837447298
io9 : One of the fully grown surprises of the season was the Heretic ; who was not only serve our heroes along their intact journey but had also reunite with his Mystic half , the Wanderer . What made you decide to bring those two characters together ?
Jeff Addiss , atomic number 27 - creator : We had this idea that , at some point , our heroes needed to go somewhere and learn this information : the “ reliable History of Thra . ” Because the lead fibre do n’t know that these Skeksis are half , right ? And so , who better to do that than a Skeksis , but why would a Skeksis help them ? And so we come out playing around this idea of a religious outcast . And there was nothing more heterodox to us than the estimation of a Skeksis and a Mystic who wanted to be one again . Because that was the foundation of everything the Skeksis fought against . And so it would make common sense that , if we ’re going to the inverse for heresy , it would be two characters who wanted to be joined again .
The Heretic and Wanderer are based on Fear and odium in Las Vegas . We had a strong paradigm of these two ; they ’re trying to take care into the future tense but they ’re not tap into Thra , so the way they do that is by doing a large amount of drugs . So we think of them as very much Fear and execration in Las Vegas , except one was on uppers and the other was on downers .
io9 : Why did you have them tell the chronicle of Thra as a puppet show in a puppet show ?
Addiss : It ’s really about what ’s the best style to drop a long ton of exhibition on the interview , the kind of exposition that a lot of the audience already knows . That ’s the knavish part . If you watch the movie , you sleep together all this . We ’re not in reality prove to withstand it back from our audience . But our heroes demand to memorize that information . So it became a inquiry of what ’s the best way to channel that entropy , to produce something the lover would love and watch out and like about ? Until the answer was : marionette .
https://gizmodo.com/how-the-empire-strikes-back-helped-shape-the-look-of-th-1837516288
io9 : How did the Heretic amount across the crystal shard ?
Addiss : I wo n’t say how he catch his hands on it , but I think he knows how important it is . And he have a go at it that it is his only crack at being harmonise with his other one-half . So , I think he would have gone to any lengths that it takes to get his script on it . The job is he might have see the futurity , “ By a Gelfling paw or else by none . ” So we think that the Heretic and the Wanderer sort of set up up this trail of breadcrumb to wait for the Gelfling , who would have had the persuasiveness and the king and the feeling to bring them back together . Because ultimately he knows he ca n’t do it .
Will Matthews , co - creator : It is in the canon , and so the estimate of the shard being turn a loss and happen is this affair that happened more than once . The idea of Aughra searching for the fragment , or Raunip assist her search for the shard . All of these things are true . We just consider they may be true more often , and from different perspective , then was initially gift .
io9 : So … where is Raunip ( Aughra ’s uncanny stone son ) ?
Addiss : We love Raunip . There was not infinite for him in this tale , but we ’re hoping there ’s distance for him in late stories .
Matthews : Raunip is such is a great type , and he ’s such a peachy engine for dramatic play , relationships , a different perspective . But in the first season , the hearing needs to learn sort of the first perspective : the Skeksis , the Gelfling . That ’s the easy way of life in . As the story progresses , with more layers , nuance , and gray area . Raunip is the master copy of the grey area . So , keep Bob Hope alive .
https://gizmodo.com/everything-you-need-to-know-before-watching-the-dark-cr-1837172422
io9 : What was the deal with the fires of revolt change by reversal into a planetary walkie talkie ?
Javier Grillo - Marxuach , co - executive producer : [ express joy ] We had a similar nomenclature in the room , in fact . It ’s a function of Thra . There ’s two reasons for it , and I imagine that they ’re both equally valid . I mean , one of them is that being capable to talk to each other through the fire does clear a lot of tale issues that require to be clear , in terms of bringing about Gelfling unity . But I remember Thra the planet has a very different psychical plane from our own , and the creatures of Thra have a very different bond psychically than the people of Earth . I mean , this is the show is not set on planet Earth , and a portion of the same rules do n’t put on .
But here ’s the matter : It ’s not like the case are going to pick up the firing of rising phone and pop out talking to each other .
io9 : How did the Dual Glaive total to be , and how did it terminate up in the hands of Rian ’s father and Deet ’s Maudra ?
Matthews : That will be explain in thenew comiccoming out this downslope !
Addiss : It was something that we explore doing a little scrap more in the show , in flashbacks , but it felt like it slowed down the pace and the vigor of the show . So we wrote it and talked about it , but we never shot it . And so that became sort of , inThe Neverending Storyfashion , a story for another day .
https://gizmodo.com/the-gelflings-go-to-war-in-your-first-look-inside-the-d-1837370539
io9 : How do the Arathim have brain - control top executive ? And why do n’t they use them against the Skeksis , if they ’re so opposed to them ?
Matthews : [ Shadows of the Dark Crystal author ] Joe Lee create what he called the crystal vocalist ( Note : those tiny face spider ) . We call them Threaders because there were too many watch glass words and it was get perplexing . In the record book , the crystallization vocalist have this power to hear — they can sort of overhear dreamfasting , because of their connexion to the crystallization . Because even the spinners , the Arathim , they are creatures of Thra as well . So they all have a connexion to the crystal , and that binds all of them together . You think , the Skeksis are not from Thra .
The reason they do n’t work on the Skeksis is , one : By the metre [ the Threaders ] emerge , the Arathim were already defeated militarily and morally by the Skeksis . They do n’t think to turn on them . And two : Because the Skeksis do n’t dreamfast , they do n’t have a connection to the crystal . We thought their mind control ability would exercise on [ the Gelfling ] because the positivist way to look at mind control is more of a head - melding . You ca n’t do that with the Skeksis when they ’re not connect to the crystal .
io9 : Was the Grottan kin wipe out after being attacked by the Arathim ? We only saw Deet ’s family and Maudra Argot afterward .
Grillo - Marxuach : That remains to be see . I do n’t think we ’ve dealt completely with the aftermath of it . I do n’t think Maudra Argot , [ Deet ’s Father ] , and their tike are the only hoi polloi who are leave of the Grottan clan . We are not yet at the concluding point of what happen to the Gelfling — of the consequence , of which you see the moving picture . So I do n’t cerebrate the cave of Grot have been void yet .
These scripts break down through a big deal of change , a lot of it just because of what we could do practically . So I have it away that there were version of the script where you regard Grottans being march off to be drain and suffering a lot of the same fate of the Gelfling in Stone in the Wood , whose minds were contain by the Arathim and they were they were taken off . So I do n’t think you ’ve seen the last of the Grottans either .
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io9 : Do you sense Seladon ’s actions ( clutch the stool of the All - Maudra , siding with the Skeksis , agreeing to give Gelfling ) are redeemable ?
Grillo - Marxuach : Seladon is one of my favorite characters in the show , and I think that she is absolutely reformable . One of the things that I believe in very strongly as a person , and I think that it ’s within the echoes of The Dark Crystal , is that forgiveness is not an impossibility — even for crimes that are dire .
This is a truth of a luck of ghostlike traditions , so it ’s not shocked to see it in Thra and to see it in the course of our narration . I conceive that where there ’s sprightliness there ’s Leslie Townes Hope , and I honestly think that ; even though Seladon has committed this frightful sort of crime , really , against her mother and against the whole of Thra . We want every part in the show to have a credible motivation that was believable . When you have someone who commits an act that is wrong , but she ’s doing it because she truly believes that is the way of life frontwards for the planet and for the citizenry , and that she ’s doing something skillful … and then she comes to regret . I do n’t see why that ’s not redeemable .
io9 : What was occur to Deet when she take The Darkening into herself ? What kind of sacrifice was that , how did that involve The Darkening , and how is it regard her ?
Grillo - Marxuach : You ’re literally talk about an ecosystem that can no longer defend itself from the insult of The Darkening , from the sentiency of decay that has been take because the crystal is corrupted . So , the tree passes that gift onto Deet [ to absorb The Darkening from the major planet ] . But one creature alone is not enough to check the entirety of The Darkening . So , even though Deet study it on , The Darkening continues to be a force on the planet . She can not be a vas for the totality of The Darkening and survive — and I think that ’s a job that , should the serial continue , is going to have to be treat .
If you look at the film , there are runnel of regal light feeding into the castle of the crystal … so you have sure as shooting have not heard the last of it . And sure as shooting , Deet , even though she has the ability to absorb it and take it into herself as an act of sacrifice to save her people , she is not enough to have it back . It takes more than one individual to do that .
https://gizmodo.com/the-dark-crystal-age-of-resistance-is-about-climate-ch-1837718902
io9 : What about her vision of Brea holding a child , and herself baby-sit on the Skeksis throne ?
Addiss : That ’s us saying that this is where we ’re go . That ’s us saying that we have a design . That ’s the thing we know where this goes . In fact , we know exactly what everything in there is , what it mean , and where the gray areas are . Prophecy is changeable .
Matthews : It ’s one of the things we had to fight for . Because when you show a flash forward , some people aim out : “ If you do this , you ’re now locked into doing it . ” And we were like , “ Yes ! ”
io9 : So can the future from her vision be changed , or is it fixed ?
Addiss : The 2d season , if we ’re lucky enough to do it , is a heap about vaticination . There are big prophecies coming . We always think that was really interesting , the idea of accepting your position in it . And what if your office in it is n’t that great ?
Matthews : Because usually , peculiarly in high fantasy , it ’s always : “ Accept your destiny . You ’re the most important individual in the world . ” And what if your destiny is , “ Yeah , you ’re not move to make it . But maybe someone you love will . Or mayhap more people will . ” What cost are you unforced to pay? … This idea of : “ If you know the future , can you exchange the future ? ” is n’t just fun and adventuring — it will be for a lot of the fictional character — but for some of them , it will be a real test of moral character .
https://gizmodo.com/the-dark-crystal-age-of-resistances-creators-and-write-1837404160
io9 : What role are Rian and Brea play in the impedance now , and what is their combat go to be in the future ?
Addiss : I guess that ’s going to be a handsome part of what they squirm with in the 2nd time of year , and why we ’re talking about prophecy and part and piazza . We very consciously , if you noticed , lost a lot of the older characters . The kind of go - to leaders for the future . So part of moving ahead will be who ’s in bearing and what does the world look like now , and do the old ways fall when the older character fall ? And so the answer is : That ’s the enquiry . This is what they have to wrestle with .
Matthew : But they are a bit apart . Deet is distinctly off doing something that has literally and figuratively consumed her . Rian is off trying to find or help or be alone . And Brea holds up the charge . She holds it up by herself . And so the first time of year was about everyone coming together . They did and it put to work , but there ’s a toll . They ’re not together anymore . And so the 2d season will be about that too .
io9 : Is the show hinting at a relationship between Deet and Rian ?
Addiss : I think it ’s spring up . There was always conversation of how much kinship you have between Rian and Deet . We were very cognizant that Mira ’s death is a big part of the show , and we did n’t it to be like , “ Well yeah , now she ’s drained , so hello new Gelfling” … I think there ’s unattackable affection . I think we are advertize toward a grow relationship between them , that it is going to be wild-eyed . We do n’t think it is yet , but that is our destination .
https://gizmodo.com/exclusive-listen-to-dark-crystal-age-of-resistances-g-1837579225
io9 : Obviously , we have this pending end of the world — especially with the season ending with the Garthim being produce to run down the Gelfling . However , there is hope . For example , we have the desert clan , who live on sand dunes that ca n’t be pass over . Are we supposed to see things like this as a way for more Gelfling to survive ? Is there hope that can derive out of this ?
Addiss : Yes , we are play with expectation quite a bit . We are doing all of those things very purposefully . And some of them are to set thing up , and some of them are to take you down the wrong path . But we are braggart believers in there is Leslie Townes Hope in this cosmos , and in this story . It may not take the chassis that you think , it may not end in a place that you think . But there ’s a lot of room for hope .
Grillo - Marxuach : One of the thing that I can reassure you is that nothing we do will seem like a cop - out , but it will also re - skeleton and re - contextualize the events of the picture show . Thra is a big situation and there ’s a lot of elbow room for Bob Hope , absolutely . And we have build our narrative very much with an termination that address the fate of the Gelfling in the film , why the film is the way it is , and what has happened to them . But , again , to get too bass into it would be to foil our future plans . If we do n’t get a 2nd season I ’ll tell you everything .
io9 : I ’m depart to hold you to that .
The Dark Crystal : Age of Resistance is currently streaming on Netflix .
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