HBO and the BBC have teamed up to adapt author Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials book trilogy for TV. The story follows Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen from Logan), who lives in a world not unlike with own with her daemon (a physical animal manifestations of a person’s soul) Pantalaimon. Together, they go on a globetrotting adventure and uncover a massive conspiracy involving a shadowy organization that’s kidnapping children for a nefarious purpose.
We’ve known for a while that season 1 was landing this fall, but now HBO has gotten specific: His Dark Materials will premiere on HBO on Monday, November 4. It’ll premiere on BBC One the day before.
As you celebrate, enjoy this trailer:
More armored bears, please.
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The show has an all-star cast that includes, among others: Ruth Wilson (The Affair) as Marisa Coulter, James McAvoy (X-Men) as Lord Asriel, and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) as Lee Scoresby. The voice cast for the aforementioned daemons and armored bear is just as impressive.
Here’s the show’s official synopsis:
"Dafne Keen takes on the lead role of Lyra, the young protagonist of the story who lives in Jordan College, Oxford. Placed there at the request of her Uncle, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), she lives a sheltered life amongst the scholars and college staff while under the watchful protection of The Master (Clarke Peters) and Librarian Scholar Charles (Ian Gelder).When the glamorous and mesmeric Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson) enters Lyra’s life she embarks upon a dangerous journey of discovery from Oxford to London. Here she meets Father MacPhail (Will Keen), Lord Boreal (Ariyon Bakare) and journalist Adele Starminster (Georgina Campbell) at a glittering society party where she first hears about the sinister General Oblation Board.Lyra is subsequently thrown into the nomadic world of the boat-dwelling Gyptians – Ma Costa (Anne-Marie Duff), Farder Coram (James Cosmo), John Faa (Lucian Msamati), Raymond Van Geritt (Mat Fraser), Jack Verhoeven (Geoff Bell) and Benjamin de Ruyter (Simon Manyonda) who take her North in her quest.Once in the North, she meets charismatic aeronaut and adventurer Lee Scoresby (Lin-Manuel Miranda) who joins them on their epic journey and who becomes one of Lyra’s closest allies."
The first book of His Dark Materials was adapted once before, as a movie called The Golden Compass. It kinda blew, so we’re looking forward to seeing someone do the series justice.
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h/t Deadline