Nosferatu director Robert Eggers is making a Labyrinth sequel — but who could replace David Bowie?
To anyone who saw Nosferatu (or the earlier news that Eggers was in talks on a Labyrinth project), that maybe isn’t the biggest possible surprise — all the blood, perverse monster-sex, and full-frontal male nudity in Nosferatu aside, there are elements in the script that feel surprisingly Labyrinth-esque, like the revelation that Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) maybe summoned up her personal destructive monster Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) out of unformed adolescent desire, and gave him power over her that she has to take back in order to survive. The conversation between Orlok and Ellen, where he insists that she summoned him, and they’re 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, where he demands her fear and love, and offers himself as her slave in return.
A darker, more adult take on Labyrinth might be a natural fit for audiences that grew up with the movie. The 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 tossed away its similarly intriguing reunion between a supernatural stalker and the adult woman he chased around when she was a teenager.)
What exactly the sequel would entail is unclear. The Deadline report says there’s no plot summary or cast information, though it lists Jim Henson’s children Brian Henson (puppeteer coordinator and the voice of Hoggle in the original Labyrinth) and Lisa Henson (CEO of The Jim Henson Company) as producers, and says Eggers and his writing partner Sjón (The Northman) will co-write the script.
The real problem with a direct sequel, though, is — who could possibly replace David Bowie as Jareth? As much as the movie revolves around the Henson workshop’s puppets and Brian Froud’s creature designs, Bowie was the movie’s breakout star. Fans’ memories of and conversations about the film (and their fan art, cosplay, and even annual masquerade ball) have centered on him for decades, and even the spin-off comic series Labyrinth: Coronation focused on his backstory. The 1986 Labyrinth is also built around Bowie performing original songs he wrote for the film.
It’s hard to imagine any modern rock star nailing the odd, slippery mixture of sexual menace, jovial humor, casual physicality, and sheer alien weirdness that Bowie brought to the role. Billy Porter might come closest in terms of persona and cultural positioning; Tilda Swinton might come closest in terms of otherworldly looks. But who has the star power to walk onto a set and replace David Bowie? If you’ve got any suggestions, spit them out while you can — Eggers and the Hensons are probably having the same conversation right now.
