- As Game of Thrones finishes, HBO has released the trailer for its next mega-series His Dark Materials
- The new show will star James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson and Lin-Manuel Miranda
- 14-year-old Logan star Dafne Keen will play the title role of Lyra Belacqua
- The new series is expected to air later this year
This weekend is a tough one for fans of high fantasy television, as we bid farewell to one of the most popular TV shows of a generation.
But HBO is helping to cushion the blow of Game of Thrones’ departure by releasing the first teaser trailer for His Dark Materials, a television adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy co-produced with the BBC.
The show offers a star-studded cast that includes James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and 14-year-old Logan star Dafne Keen. She’ll star as 12-year-old Lyra Belacqua, who adventures through parallel universes in Pullman’s novels.
The adaptation will be written by Jack Thorne, who wrote Harry Potter and the Cursed Child based on a story co-conceived with JK Rowling, and among its producers is Julie Gardner, who worked on the 2005 revival of Doctor Who. His Dark Materials doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s due sometime this year.
The series has been adapted before, with the first book in the trilogy appearing as the 2007 film The Golden Compass, starring Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Ian McKellan, and Sam Elliott. It went onto win the 2008 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but opened to mixed reviews, with critics calling the pace of the film rushed.
The first season of the new adaptation also appears to feature the story from The Golden Compass, which should help address concerns that the book was too sprawling to fit into a a single film. The HBO/BBC version also looks decidedly darker than the kid-friendly 2007 feature, and seems to be courting the now-grown ups who read Pullman’s books as kids during their 1990s and 2000s heyday.
Check out the teaser trailer above.
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