HBO's Star-Studded Fantasy Series 'His Dark Materials' Has Dropped Its First Season Two Trailer
And 'Fleabag' stars Andrew Scott and Phoebe Waller-Bridge are joining the cast.
After nearly a decade of Westerosi power struggles, obsessed fans and soaring ratings, HBO found itself with a Game of Thrones-sized gap to fill last year. The network isn't completely saying goodbye to the world created by George RR Martin, with at least one spinoff in the works — but it's also eager for something else to help pick up where GoT left off, fantasy-wise.
First debuting late in 2019, and due to return for a second season in the next few months. His Dark Materials is one of the US network's prime candidates. It's based on Philip Pullman's award-winning young adult trilogy of books of the same name: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. And if it sounds familiar — and not just because you watched the initial batch of episodes — that's because one of the tomes, The Golden Compass, was already turned into a movie back in 2007.
HBO is keeping things simple with their adaptation by sticking with the franchise name, other than individual book monikers — hence the His Dark Materials title. They've also bet big on star power, with the series boasting a hefty cast. James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda, Da 5 Bloods' Clarke Peters and Logan's Dafne Keen all star, while Fleabag's Andrew Scott and Phoebe Waller-Bridge will also pop up in the second season. Yes, it'll be a reunion for the two series newcomers, although you'll be seeing Scott on-screen as Colonel John Parry and hearing Waller-Bridge's voice as Parry's daemon.
What's a daemon? It's one of the key parts of His Dark Materials. Here, Keen plays an orphan by the name of Lyra Belacqua — who seems just like everyone else, but hails from an alternate universe where a person's soul manifests as a shape-shifting animal called a daemon. In the show's first season, as Lyra looks for a kidnapped friend in the Arctic, she discovers a church-run stolen children ring, learns about mysterious particles known as Dust and ventures through different worlds, including the one we all know. McAvoy pops up as a powerful aristocrat, Wilson is his ex, and Miranda plays a balloonist and adventurer.
If you're eager for the next season, HBO has just dropped the first sneak peek, releasing a trailer as part of this year's Comic-Con at Home. An exact release date for the season hasn't been revealed yet, but it'll hit the US in the country's autumn — so spring Down Under, where it airs in Australia on Foxtel.
Check out the full trailer below:
His Dark Materials' second season will arrive sometime later in 2020 — we'll update you with an exact date when it is announced.
Images: Simon Ridgway/HBO.
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