Robert Eggers to remind people of the babe with Labyrinth sequel

Robert Eggers and Luca Guadagnino have more in common than the fact that they were both (frustratingly, if you ask this writer) left off the Best Director list at this morning’s Oscar nominations. These past few months, it seems like they’ve been in a race of their own to announce the most upcoming projects. Guadagnino got an early head-start with After The Hunt (starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, and Ayo Edebiri), Separate Rooms (starring Josh O’Connor and Léa Seydoux), and his American Psycho remake, but Eggers is currently making a play from behind. Yesterday, the Nosferatu director announced that he was planning to move from vampires to werewolves in Werwulf (yes, that’s how it’s spelled), a film set for Christmas 2026. But he’s not stopping there. According to Deadline, he’s also reportedly working on a sequel to Labyrinth, the beloved Jim Henson classic from 1986.

The choice to revisit Labyrinth without David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King—or Jim Henson’s puppet wizardry, for that matter—is a bit eyebrow-raising, but Eggers has never been in the business of people pleasing. (For anyone who came on board at Nosferatu, there’s a whole scene in The Lighthouse where Robert Pattinson gets hit in the face by his own shit. It wasn’t pleasant, but it rules.) The trade clarifies that this is a sequel instead of a remake, so it could technically be after Jareth’s time, but it will still be interesting to keep an eye on who he decides to cast for this. 

Not much else is known about the picture as of this writing, including whether it will be a musical or a puppet show like its predecessor. Either one would be a pretty big swing for the director, who’s mostly dabbled in serious material thus far. (Although The Lighthouse certainly had its moments of absurdist humor i.e. the shit incident.) In an interview with IMDb about his journey to make Nosferatu, Eggers explained that “as a kid, I was really really afraid of stuff. In making horror movies, I get to explore fear and also control it.” Maybe David Bowie in really tight pants is the childhood demon Eggers needed to exorcise all along.