The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus making new urban fantasy series
By Ashley Hurst
Between working on the 24-episode final season of The Walking Dead and writing his very own novel, The Ravaged, Norman Reedus is a super busy guy. And he’s still seeking out new projects. The actor is set to reprise his role as Daryl Dixon in a Walking Dead spinoff after the main show ends, as well as fighting to play Ghost Rider in the MCU. Now, we can add a puppet-based adventure series to the list!
According to Variety, Reedus is teaming up with the Jim Henson Company, the same people behind seminal works The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. He will work alongside beloved artists Brian and Wendy Froud on the new family-friendly adventure series. But don’t expect a story set within one of their pre-existing fantasy worlds. This one is a completely new world filled with different fantastical creatures. Whenever the Henson company is involved, the possibilities are endless.
“Norman Reedus, the Frouds [who will create the show’s creatures] and the Jim Henson Company coming together to create a show is the mashup of my dreams,” said Halle Stanford, the president of TV at The Jim Henson Company. “Norman is an artist, and when I suggested to him, what if we create a series with the Frouds together that explores his love of magical creatures, he was so excited.”
Reedus is more enthusiastic than anyone to dive into the project. It’s a nice change from zombies, after all. “They are masters in the fantasy world-building space,” he said. “I mean, a show about goblins, trolls and otherworldly creatures? There’s nobody in the universe better suited for that than the Henson Company.”
Norman Reedus teams with The Jim Henson Company on new fantasy show
So what will this mysterious Reedus-Henson project entail? “We want to make hope cool,” Stanford said. “[I]t is an urban fantasy. It will be a magical world. But I feel like Norman is going to help us bring the ‘punk’ back in ‘hope punk.’ I also think that people kind of like that punk in Henson’s legacy. The Muppets were the underdogs, our [‘Labyrinth’] Goblin King with David Bowie was so cool…”
The Jim Henson Company has helped push forward the television medium for decades, creating some of the best-loved puppetry pictures ever made. In 2019, the Henson Company revived its Dark Crystal franchise with Age of Resistance on Netflix, but it was unfortunately canceled after one season. The projects don’t stop coming, though. For instance, they’ve already rebooted Fraggle Rock on AppleTV+.
Hopefully, Reedus’ involvement within a new fantasy world can help usher in a whole new generation of fans!
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