House of the Dragon, The Rings of Power, The Witcher, The Wheel of Time…there are plenty of big-name fantasy series on the air these days, but they’re not the only options. For two seasons now, HBO has been quietly adapting author Philip Pullman’s series His Dark Materials. And now the third and final season is almost upon us!
Season 3 will adapt the third and final book in Pullman’s trilogy, The Amber Spyglass. This is where things get really wild and interesting, so I’m looking forward to seeing what HBO does. Watch the trailer below:
“What if we don’t come back?” “Then we will have died doing something important.” Ah, that’s the fearless Lyra I remember from the books.
Lin-Manual Miranda and Andrew Scott will return in His Dark Materials season 3
In brief, the final season picks up with Lyra and Will as they attempt to puzzle out their roles in the inter-dimensional conspiracy they’ve gotten themselves caught up in. Will has a knife that can cut doorways between dimensions, Lyra has a device that can answer any question she asks of it, and also her father Lord Asriel is plotting a rebellion against God and heaven…standard teenager stuff.
As a fan of the books, I’ve liked the first two seasons of His Dark Materials but haven’t loved them. To start, I’ve thought that the producers padded out the first two books too much, but since The Amber Spyglass is easily the longest novel of the trilogy, hopefully that won’t be a problem for this final season.
And the trailer looks like it includes everything, even the really weird stuff. We’ve got Lyra and Will traveling to the Land of the Dead, the angels look really cool, Asriel is attended by a pair of Gallivespian spies (tiny little folk who ride dragonflies like horses), and Dr. Mary Malone is lost in an alien world with very tall trees. The one thing I really wanted to see in the trailer but didn’t was a glimpse of the Mulefa, the intelligent species she counters in this world, but I guess they’re saving that.
His Dark Materials season 3 release date
Lee Scoresby and Jonn Parry, two important characters played by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Andrew Scott, will both return in His Dark Materials season 3, even though both of their characters died in season 2. I’m betting we’ll see them in cameo form in the Land of the Dead. Where else?
His Dark Materials season 3 premieres on HBO and HBO Max on December 5.
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h/t Bleeding Cool