Sir Philip Pullman's classic book trilogy series His Dark Materials is getting a small screen adaptation on BBC and HBO. The eight-episode first season will be debuting on the networks in late 2019. However, there has been no announcement of the premiere date so far.
Speculations are that His Dark Materials will premiere on BBC in the fall season before HBO. Then, the U.S. cable network will air the show sometime in late 2019.
To entice the audience, HBO recently released a teaser of His Dark Materials. The timing of the release seemed fitting considering that HBO's biggest show Game of Thrones, which is also based on a book series, is on its way out.
The first season of His Dark Materials, which completed filming in December 2018, will focus on the 1995 book "The Northern Lights." Translated into a TV show by Jack Thorne, the first season was directed by Tom Hooper for Bad Wolf productions.
"I'm delighted that the production is underway, and I'm looking forward immensely to seeing how it looks," Pullman said in a press release announcing the coming of His Dark Materials to the small screen. "Bad Wolf has assembled a wonderful cast, and I'm sure every HDM reader is as keen as I am to see it all coming together."
James McAvoy will headline His Dark Materials as Lord Asriel. Joining him are Ruth Wilson as Mrs. Coulter and young star Dafne Keen as Lyra, the orphan. Lin-Manuel Miranda is also in the cast as Lee Scoresby. However, Miranda will only be in a few episodes of the first season of His Dark Materials.
The story of His Dark Materials focuses on a parallel universe where people's souls have an animal manifestation called daemons. The central character is Lyra, with her Pantalaimon daemon, who lives among Jordan scholars with her uncle Asriel (snow leopard daemon).
Asriel has been doing experiments on an element only known as dust. However, when Asriel was imprisoned, Lyra meets Mrs. Coulter (golden monkey daemon) who convinces the young girl to live with her. About the same time, Lyra's friend, Roger, has gone missing and presumed taken by Gobblers. She eventually discovered Mrs. Coulter's ties to these abductors and decided to leave to look for her friend.
The first book of His Dark Materials was adapted into a movie titled The Golden Compass in 2007 with Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter, Daniel Craig as Asriel and Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra. The film's box office performance, however, failed to deliver a trilogy; hence this TV adaptation has become its do-over.
Meanwhile, His Dark Materials season 2 is set to begin filming in the coming weeks. Reports from WalesOnline revealed that the series would be divided into five installments with around 40 episodes.
