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His Dark Materials Trailer Gives First Look at Lin Manuel Miranda, James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson in BBC HBO Series

His Dark Materials Trailer Gives First Look at Lin-Manuel Miranda, James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson in BBC-HBO Series

By Akhil Arora | Updated: 26 February 2019 13:03 IST

Photo Credit: BBC

Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby in His Dark Materials

Highlights

His Dark Materials is “coming soon”, says BBC
First trailer includes glimpses of lead characters
A big-budgeted film adaptation didn’t go so well in 2007

Following a few seconds of footage packed into the HBO promo trailer, co-producer BBC has released the first teaser trailer for His Dark Materials, the adaptation of the epic fantasy adventure novel trilogy of the same name by Sir Philip Pullman. The show stars Dafne Keen (Logan), James McAvoy (Split), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton), Ruth Wilson (The Affair), Clarke Peters (The Wire), Ian Gelder (Queers), Will Keen (The Refugees), Ariyon Bakare (Life), Georgina Campbell (Krypton), Anne-Marie Duff (The Virgin Queen), James Cosmo (Game of Thrones), Lucien Msamati (Black Earth Rising), Mat Fraser (Loudermilk), Geoff Bell (Kingsman: The Secret Service), and Simon Manyonda (King Lear).

The first His Dark Materials trailer is a half-minute clip that gives us tiny glimpses of the characters played by Keen, McAvoy, Peters, Wilson, and Miranda. It opens in an eerie, ominous fashion before moving into a higher gear, as the young Keen — who plays the lead character of Lyra Belacqua — runs from unknown pursuers. The teaser then emphasises the cast at its disposal, before ending with quick cuts of action scenes and dramatic shots. BBC hasn't announced a release date, except to say that His Dark Materials is “coming soon”. It has already been renewed for season 2, back in September last year.

His Dark Materials is set in a parallel universe to ours that's dominated by the Church, where technology hasn't evolved to the point of cars and airplanes, and people wear clothes that are drawn from Britain's Victorian era. Lyra (Dafne Keen) lives in Jordan College, their version of the University of Oxford, at the request of her uncle, Lord Asriel (McAvoy), who's under the watchful protection of The Master (Peters) and Librarian Scholar Charles (Gelder).

A former lover of Asriel and the villain, Mrs. Coulter (Wilson), takes Lyra on “a journey of discovery” from Oxford to London, where she meets Father MacPhail (Will Keen), Lord Boreal (Bakare) and journalist Adele Starminster (Campbell) at a party. Lyra learns about “the sinister General Oblation Board” and ends up in “the nomadic world of the boat dwelling Gyptians – Ma Costa (Duff), Farder Coram (Cosmo), John Faa (Msamati), Raymond Van Geritt (Fraser), Jack Verhoeven (Bell) and Benjamin de Ruyter (Manyonda) who take her North in her quest.”

It's in the North that Lyra meets “charismatic aeronaut and adventurer Lee Scoresby (Miranda), who joins them on their epic journey and who becomes one of Lyra's closest allies.”

Written by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), the first season of His Dark Materials consists of eight episodes, which have been helmed by five directors: Oscar-winner Tom Hooper (The King's Speech) for the first two episodes, Dawm Shadforth (Trust) on episode three, Otto Bathurst (2018's Robin Hood) on episodes four and five, Euros Lyn (Doctor Who 2005-10) for episode six, and Jamie Childs (Doctor Who season 11) on episodes seven and eight.

Laurie Borg has produced the show, with executive producers in Jane Tranter, Julie Gardner and Dan McCulloch for Bad Wolf, Pullman, Thorne, Hooper, and Deborah Forte, Toby Emmerich and Carolyn Blackwood for New Line Cinema, and Ben Irving and Piers Wenger for BBC One.

Pullman released the three books under His Dark Materials between 1995 and 2000. They have won several awards. In 2007, the first novel was adapted into a $180-million feature film by New Line Cinema with Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, and Eva Green in lead roles, but poor critical and commercial performance meant potential sequels were cancelled.

HBO is handling international distribution for His Dark Materials, so it's possible that the show will be available on Hotstar in India.

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