The Dark Crystal characters are the inhabitants of Thra. There, the Gelflings, who are the native beings, coexisted peacefully with the Skeksis, who arrived offering protection and knowledge. However, their true intention was to take advantage of the resources of the planet and those who live there. When their motives were exposed, three members of the elven race began a rebellion for the freedom of their world.
This fantasy adventure series was developed by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews for Netflix. In it, you get a look at the events leading up to the plot of the original 1982 film The Dark Crystal. In the show, you’ll see some important characters that you won’t see in the film. Below you can find more information about the main characters and how they are influenced in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
20 skekOk
SkekOk is voiced by Neil Sterenberg. This character was present at the tithing ceremony and demanded the search and capture of Rian. Subsequently, he participated in the battle against the Gelfling, receiving defeat. Thus, he stayed out of the war for a future counterattack along with the surviving Skeksis.
19 skekEkt
SkekEkt is voiced by Alice Dinnean. He fulfills the function of being the ornamentalist of the Skeksis, being responsible for the clothing and architecture of his people. He was present in the final battle against the Gelfling, being defeated by the latter. Subsequently, he decides to withdraw from the war, as well as the surviving Skeksis to plan a future attack by means of the Garthim.
18 skekAyuk
SkekAyuk is voiced by Harvey Fierstein. His role was to be the cook of the Skeksis. After skekTek’s essence ceremony, he assisted in the search and capture of Rian. After the events of All-Maudra Mayrin’s death, Aughra’s resurgence, and skekSil’s banishment, he decided to stay away from the war to plan a future counterattack with the remaining Skeksis.
17 skekLach
SkekLach is voiced by Awkwafina. This character departs with skekOk for the tithing ceremony, while he comes into conflict with skekSil, due to Rian’s defection. He also tried to obtain the essence of the Gelfling and participated in the war against them, where he’s killed less than Deet.
16 skekZok
SkekZok is voiced by Keegan-Michael Key. He’s the Ritual Master of the villains in the story and occupies the role of being the director of all ceremonial activities. At first, he accompanies skekVar to meet with All-Maudra Mayrin with the intentions of stealing Gelfling essence, and participates in Mayrin’s death to later proclaim Seladon as the new ruler.
Later, when the resistance wins the war and skekSo dies, he takes a more reserved role. However, he prepares with skekTek for a future counterattack by means of the soldier Garthim, his secret weapon.
15 All-Maudra Mayrin
All-Maudra Mayrin is voiced by Helena Bonham Carter. She was the penultimate All-Maudra of all the Gelfling. She was of the Vapra Clan, and was always a supporter of the Skeksis.
Later, when the latter’s true intentions are discovered, she decides to side with the Gelfling resistance and disband the Crystal Alliance. However, she’s assassinated by SkekVar. She’s succeeded by Seladon, her eldest daughter, who declares her a traitor, as the latter tries to re-establish ties with the Skeksis.
14 Hup
Hup is voiced by Victor Yerrid. Hup is a Podling, who is dedicated to being a cook, although his dream is to become a paladin. Later, he rescues Deet from her trance, when she crosses paths with a Silk Spitter. After he saves her, he decides to join the resistance, being Deet’s direct companion to fight against the Skeksis.
He accompanies the protagonists to the Circles of the Suns and then gets injured. Finally, while recovering from his wounds, he finds the device to reactivate Lore, a rocky intelligent construct, to help Brea.
13 Tavra
Tavra is voiced by Caitriona Balfe. She’s the sister of Seladon and Brea, being the middle child of All-Maudra Mayrin. She’s a member of the Vapra Clan, and was always uneasy about her mother’s rule and the Skeksis. When the latter’s true intentions were discovered, she participated in the rebellion without any hesitation, being Naia’s companion.
She ends up being controlled by the hive mind, at the hands of skekVar. Subsequently, she’s released from possession, although she dies at the hands of skekSil when she tries to kill skekVar in revenge.
12 Seladon
Seladon is voiced by Gugu Mbatha-Raw. She’s from the Vapra clan, being the older sister of Brea and daughter of All-Maudra Mayrin. She proclaimed herself the new All-Maudra when her mother was killed by skekVar, and at the same time was at odds with Aughra, as Seladon was always a supporter of the Skeksis. Besides she blamed Brea for her mother’s death.
Then, during her rule, she’s taken captive by skekAyuk, but is saved by Aughra’s sacrifice. Finally, she ends up reconciling with Brea and finally joins the resistance, thus winning the war together with the Gelfling.
11 skekTek
SkekTek is voiced by Mark Hamill. He’s the scientist of the Skeksis, a creature with a weak complexion, but a great intellect. When he was experimenting with the Dark Crystal, he accidentally drained his own energy. Then, encouraged by skekSil, he decided to use his discovery on Gelflings, starting with Mira.
When the Stone-in-the-Wood war broke out, skekTek didn’t actively participate in it due to his physical weakness. Being of a warrior race, this earned him much derision from his peers. In the end, in a fit of annoyance and inspiration, the scientist killed one of his servants and used his corpse and mechanical parts to create the first Garthim.
10 Naia
Naia is voiced by Hannah John-Kamen. She’s Gurjin’s twin sister and the successor princess of the Drenchen clan. All her life had been spent in the swamp until she came to her brother’s rescue.
She went out into the forest with the purpose of capturing Rian to exchange him for her brother’s freedom. Convinced by Kylan, the young woman listens to him and sees that her brother gave himself up voluntarily for the cause. Later, Aughra commissions her and her team to light the “Fires of Resistance.” In the end, Naia showed up at the battle of Stone-in-the-Wood with the troops of the Drenchen clan.
9 Kylan
Shazad Latif is the voice of Kylan. He belongs to the Spriton clan and is in charge of telling their stories through songs. He’s also a great friend of Naia, so he doesn’t hesitate to accompany her to hunt Rian.
When the duo met Rian and asked them to dream, Kylan was the first to do so. There he understood the truth about the Skeksis and Gurjin’s capture. After the release of his friend, they fled to the forest, where they had a vision. In it, Aughra charged the young man to spread the rebellion among the different clans. In the end, the character took part in the war, where he faced skekLach, the Collector.
8 Gurjin
Harris Dickinson is in charge of playing Gurjin. He’s Rian’s best friend, prince of the Drenchen clan, and guard of the Crystal Castle.
Gurjin was approached by Rian, who informed him about Mira’s murder and convinced him to help him obtain evidence. When they were discovered spying on the Skeksis, he stayed behind to allow his friend to escape, which resulted in his capture. Later, he was rescued by his Naia and Kylan. In the end, he convinced his mother to join the rebellion and commanded the troops of his clan.
7 Aughra
Donna Kimball voices Aughra. She’s the incarnation of Thra and is seen as a figure of balance for the living creatures of the planet. Her work was to help the Gelfling to create the resistance to fight against the Skeksis, thus uniting all the clans and consolidating the movement from the beginning.
When she learned of the danger Thra was in at the hands of the Skeksis, she projected the Gelfling consciousnesses into the Space of Dreams and designated Rian, Deet, and Brea as the ones in charge of going to the Circle of Suns. Subsequently, she sacrifices herself to save Seladon by giving up her essence, apparently killing her, although she later manages to be reborn and live after the war.
6 skekVar
Benedict Wong voices skekVar. He’s the military general in charge of the Skeksis’ troops. He’s a voracious, violent, and very strong creature, which makes him a tough opponent. He’s not very intelligent, so he held the idea that they should take as many Gelflings as they wanted. This idea sympathized with skekSo, who made him his right-hand man.
On a commission from the emperor, skekVar went to the city to look for Gelflings to drain them. When he arrived at the Crystal Castle, he had a heated argument with All-Maudra Mayrin about the rebellion. In the end, he assassinated her, which ended up breaking the Crystal Alliance.
During the war, he fought against Rian, who ended up defeating him due to his weakened state. The general retreated and requested help from skekSil, who took advantage of the situation to stab him.
5 skekSil
Simon Pegg is the voice actor who plays skekSil. He’s the Secretary of State and next in succession to be emperor. When the Dark Crystal no longer supplied life energy, it was his idea to begin extracting it from the Gelflings. To do so, he selected Mira as a test subject, which would provoke a rebellion on Rian’s part.
SkekSil was aware that draining too much of the Gelfligns would eventually deplete the resources. Therefore, he began to urge the emperor to moderate their use. However, this only got him demoted from his post. In order to regain it, he gained skekVar’s trust while sabotaging his essence vials. Finally, he took advantage of skekVar’s weakness at the end of the war and assassinated him, returning to be the emperor’s advisor.
4 skekSo
Jason Isaacs is the voice actor for skekSo. He’s the main villain of the series and the evil emperor of the Skeksis. Initially, he arrived offering protection to the Gelflings, meanwhile, consuming the life of the Crystal of Truth. Due to his fear of being outnumbered, he took it upon himself to antagonize the seven clans.
As a result of a thousand years of draining the energy from the Dark Crystal, it no longer supplies them with life energy. In addition, it causes the planet to suffer from a disease called the Darkening. He instructs his scientist to find a way to prolong its life and this is when the draining of the Gelglings begins. In the end, he breaks the Crystal Alliance and later orders to attack at dawn during the Stone-in-the-Wood war.
3 Deet
Actress Nathalie Emmanuel gives voice to Deet. One of the three main characters in the series, she’s a gentle, quiet, nature-loving creature. When she accidentally fed her Nurlocs a contaminated moss, they went berserk and attacked her. She fled into the forest and there spoke to the Sanctuary Tree, who told her about the Darkening.
On her way to tell All-Maudra what happened, Mayrin met Rian and had a vision caused by Aughra. Aughra revealed to her the Skeksis’ plans to drain the Gelflings’ life energy, so she joined the rebellion. In the end, she absorbed the Darkening unleashed by skekSo and used it against her enemies. This gave victory to her species at the cost of causing great damage.
2 Brea
Anya Taylor-Joy voices Brea. She’s a princess of the Vapra clan and another of the show’s three main characters. She’s a kind, fair, intelligent and studious girl. Initially, she got along very well with the Skeksis, especially skekOk, who allowed her access to their vast library.
During a tithe-collecting expedition, Brea witnesses skekOk pretending to strip the farmers of their belongings. From there, she began to study the Skeksis’ archives, which led her to discover that they kept the Gelfling clans apart. Then, at Aughra’s request, she joined Rian and Deet in the rebellion. In the end, she led the airborne troops during the battle of Stone-in-the-Wood.
1 Rian
Rian’s voice is evoked by Taron Egerton. He’s one of the three main characters of the series and a Gelfling member of the Stonewood clan. Initially, he was an immature and irresponsible boy, so he neglected his duty as a guard at the Crystal Castle. However, he later became intelligent, brave, and a great warrior.
He went on a hunting trip with his best friend and his girlfriend, Mira. When the latter was captured, the young man followed her abductor to the castle dungeons. There he witnessed his energy being drained to rejuvenate the Skeksis. From there, he decided that he would unite all the Gelfling clans to start the rebellion. In the end, the boy was the leader of the troops in the battle of Stonewood, in which he was victorious.
