His Dark Materials has scripts written for final season, but still no go-ahead
By Dan Selcke
The second season of His Dark Materials ended (in the UK, anyway) to rave reviews! Everyone wants a third and final season, but there’s a hold up.
The second season of His Dark Materials ended this weekend…if you live in the UK and watched it on the BBC. If you’re across the pond and watching new episodes on HBO, you still have two more episodes to go, one tonight and the finale next week.
And if you’re one of those people, we recommend you stop reading now, because there are SPOILERS in this post. Otherwise, let’s talk about that ending surprise…
I’m talking about the final scene of the final episode, where Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) turns up to entreat a group of angels to join his war against the Authority. Basically, he’s going to war against God.
Asriel, who has sat out the entirety of this season, was originally due to have a whole episode to himself, but the team had to scrap it thanks to COVID-19. It’s very cool that they could give him this showcase at the end. “Executive producer Dan McCulloch moved mountains to make it happen, and James McAvoy, very brilliantly and generously, came in and gave us a COVID day,” series creator and writer Jack Thorne told Radio Times. “It’s one of the things I most admire about James, he planted his feet and shouted at the sky, and it was glorious to see him do so. I am so so pleased it was kept a secret up to this point, and grateful to the previewers for not spoiling it.”
Thorne also answered a whole lot of questions on Twitter, many of them about a potential third and final season, which everyone seems eager to get now that the second season has ended so strong. It still sounds like another season is in limbo, although Thorne and his team have submitted scripts:
The third book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series is The Amber Spyglass. It’s the longest of the trilogy, which had some wondering if it might be split into two seasons, but Thorne wants to stick to the original template:
As someone who’s read the books, I think that sounds right. If you ask me, the problem with the first two seasons is that the writers had to stretch out Pullman’s reasonably short books to fit into eight episodes of television apiece. The Amber Spyglass should fit more comfortably, without a need for filler.
The question is whether it’ll get made at all. According to The Wertzone, while viewership has been strong in the UK, where the His Dark Materials books are very popular, it’s been dropping in the US. This show is a BBC-HBO co-production, and if the American response is weak, HBO may pull out. The BBC could go it alone, but that would mean a lot less money, which could hurt a show with this much special effects work; those talking dæmons don’t just happen.
I hope the third season does happen; it’s got the best material, and the show has improved as it’s gone along. And Thorne clearly has plans to make it as good as possible, promising more of Lord Asriel and the introduction of several fan favorites from the books:
Fingers crossed!
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