Children's

Watch the First Trailer of the New BBC Adaptation of His Dark Materials

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Blaga Atanassova

Staff Writer

Blaga is a PhD candidate in Classical Archaeology. A lover of stories and adventures of all kinds from an early age, she divides her time between reading (or listening to) books, visiting ancient sites (and occasionally excavating them), learning about the lives of ancient women, and playing board games. Email: blaga.v.atanassova@gmail.com

The BBC has released the first trailer of the brand new adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series. Tom Hooper directs an ensemble cast including Dafne Keen, Lin-Manuel Miranda, James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, and Clarke Peters.

For anyone not familiar with it (no judgement! I only read Northern Lights this past summer!) His Dark Materials is an award-winning trilogy. It comprises of Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in the US), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. The author, Philip Pullman, has described it as a coming-of-age story Lyra Belacqua and Will Perry (who only appears in the second and third books). The series begins in an alternative version of our world, and continues across a number of parallel universes.

The new BBC adaptation will come out at some point this year. It contains eight episodes, and has already been renewed for a second series of the same length. Given the highlights shown in the trailer and the fact that Will’s name does not appear in the cast list, I presume that each series will focus on a different book, beginning with Northern Lights. This might be a good solution, as it will allow for the proper development of the world and characters, and addressing more of the issue the books focus on (something that the 2007 movie could not do).

Watch the trailer here. Are you looking forward to this new adaptation? I know I am!