Remember three weeks ago when I said I wanted to know who was voicing skekTek the Scientist in the Dark Crystal prequel series? Well, I’ve gotten what I wanted and then some, because the entire voice cast was revealed yesterday by Entertainment Weekly.

And it turns out that skekTek is (drum roll, please)….

…Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill!

At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about this, but the more I think about it, the more appropriate it seems. I think Mark Hamill and Steve Whitmire have a similar ethos, so if it wasn’t going to be the latter, I’m glad that it’s the former.

I recently read Author Quest winner J.M. Lee’s Shadows of the Dark Crystal (and enjoyed it very much!) Some of those characters also appear in the series, and it was exciting to be able to put faces to names.

Naia (the first book’s protagonist) and Gurjin are supposed to be twins, so I’m pleased to see how much the puppet characters resemble one other.

Kylan is my favorite character in the book, and I’m pleasantly surprised to see that he looks exactly the way I imagined him.

General note about the Gelflings before I move on. At first I was a little disappointed that some of the Gelflings aren’t as pretty as Kira (and Jen, to a certain extent). But then I realized that Jen and Kira were supposed to be young Gelflings. There are Gelflings of all ages appearing in the prequel, as well as from several different clans. Their costuming and other visual clues gives some indication of their different backgrounds and cultures, and that’s really exciting to me.

I’m pleased by this news, but also a little confused. Is he just doing voice work or puppeteering as well?

I learned from the book that “fizzgig” is actually the name of the entire species, not just a single individual. This means that Dave Goelz is playing a fizzgig but not (as some assumed on the basis of zero evidence) the same Fizzgig from the original movie. This fizzgig’s name is Baffi.

To be fair, I don’t remember any specification as to a fizzgig’s lifespan in the Dark Crystal materials I’ve seen, and since Thra is such an alien world, it is useless to make assumptions that small, furry creatures there have a similar lifespan to small, furry creatures on Earth. 

Harvey Fierstein is the Gourmand. I wondered what role he would have to play. This seems appropriate.

Jason Isaacs is the Emperor, and that is an awesome choice.

And according to EW, Andy Samberg is “the Heretic.” I’m confused because I don’t recall any Skeksis described as a heretic prior to this, and also a little miffed. All due respect to Andy Samberg, but I’m pretty sure I’M the Heretic. It says so right in my blog header, after all. 😉