Robert Eggers Set For ‘Labyrinth’ Sequel At TriStar

A day after Focus Features’ announcement of Werwulf, which Robert Eggers has set as his next film on the heels of Nosferatu, we’ve learned that the filmmaker has closed his deal to write and direct a new Labyrinth film for TriStar Pictures.

The news comes following the unveiling of the 2025 Oscar nominations, which included four for Eggers’ hit vampire flick also released by Focus, in the areas of cinematography, costume design, production design, and makeup and hairstyling.

Plot details for Eggers’ Labyrinth are under wraps, but we’re told the film is a sequel, rather than a remake of Jim Henson’s 1986 classic. Eggers is writing the script with Sjón, his collaborator on 2022 Viking actioner The Northman, with whom he’s also working on Werwulf. Chris and Eleanor Columbus will produce alongside Lisa Henson, with Brian Henson executive producing.

A beloved musical fantasy starring a young Jennifer Connelly and the late David Bowie, Labyrinth follows the former’s 16-year-old Sarah as she navigates a vast, otherworldly maze to rescue her infant brother, Toby (Toby Froud), whom she inadvertently wished away to the realm of Goblin King Jareth (Bowie). Throughout her journey, Sarah encounters a variety of magical creatures and challenges that test her resolve and maturity.

In its theatrical release through TriStar, the film underperformed, grossing only around $34 million against a reported budget of $25 million, faring better overseas than domestically. Still, it earned nominations at the likes of the Hugo Awards and the British Academy Film Awards and is now appreciated as a cult classic. Among its most memorable features is the innovative puppetry that emerged for the project from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Over the last few decades, the film’s popularity has led to tie-in novels and comic books, video games, perennial screenings and even an annual fan masquerade ball, which is considered one of the largest in the world.

Efforts to get a Labyrinth follow-up off the ground have been ongoing since at least 2017, with Doctor Strange‘s Scott Derrickson most recently attaching to direct a prior incarnation from a script by Maggie Levin in 2020.

Still playing in theaters, Eggers’ take on gothic vampire flick Nosferatu is the highest-grossing film of his career, having passed $156 million worldwide since Christmas Day. Heading into its eighth weekend at the box office and recently hitting PVOD, the film is also now Focus Features’ second highest-grossing title stateside behind Downton Abbey. It marks the celebrated genre filmmaker’s fourth on the heels of The Witch and The Lighthouse for A24, and The Northman for Focus.

The plot of Eggers’ Werwulf hasn’t been divulged, but the title gives one a good sense. Eggers will direct from his script written with Sjón, his collaborator on 2022 Viking actioner The Northman, with the film produced and financed by Focus to hit theaters in North America on Christmas Day 2026. Eggers and Sjón will produce alongside Focus Features, with Maiden Voyage’s Chris and Eleanor Columbus executive producing.

Eggers is repped by WME and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz. News of his attachment to Labyrinth was first reported by Jeff Sneider of The InSneider.