His Dark Materials (TV series)

• Dafne Keen as Lyra Belacqua (also known as Lyra Silvertongue), a girl who was raised at Jordan College.
• Ruth Wilson as Marisa Coulter, an explorer and powerful figure at the Magisterium who is Lyra's mother.
• Anne-Marie Duff as Ma Costa, a Gyptian woman who previously nursed Lyra.
• Clarke Peters as The Master of Jordan College.
• James Cosmo as Farder Coram, an elderly Gyptian and Serafina's former lover.
• Ariyon Bakare as Lord Carlo Boreal,[2] an authoritative figure at the Magisterium who crosses between two worlds. In Will's world, he is known as Sir Charles Latrom.
• Will Keen as Father MacPhail, a Magisterium official.
• Lucian Msamati as John Faa, the lord of the Western Gyptians.
• Gary Lewis as Thorold,[2] Asriel's assistant.
• Lewin Lloyd as Roger Parslow, a kitchen boy who is Lyra's best friend.
• Daniel Frogson as Tony Costa, Ma Costa's elder son.
• James McAvoy as Lord Asriel Belacqua,[3] a scholar and explorer who is Lyra's father.
• Georgina Campbell as Adele Starminster, a reporter.
• Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby, an aeronaut.
• Ruta Gedmintas as Serafina Pekkala, a witch who is a member of a coven at Lake Enera, and Coram's former lover.
• Lia Williams as Dr Cooper, a Magisterium scientist operating in Bolvangar.[4]
• Amir Wilson as Will Parry,[5] a secondary school student from Oxford, whose father disappeared 13 years ago.
• Nina Sosanya as Elaine Parry,[4] Will's sick mother.

• Simon Manyonda as Benjamin De Ruyter
• Geoff Bell as Jack Verhoeven
• Tyler Howitt as Billy Costa, a Gyptian boy captured by the Gobblers, and Ma Costa's younger son.
• Mat Fraser as Raymond Van Gerritt
• David Langham as Father Garret[2]
• Robert Emms as Thomas,[6] an agent working for Boreal who spies on Will's family.
• Morfydd Clark as Sister Clara[4][7]
• Frank Bourke as Fra Pavel[8]
• Jamie Wilkes as The Pale-Faced Man, an unnamed associate of Thomas.
• Joe Tandberg as Iorek Byrnison (voice and motion-capture), an armoured bear.[9][10]

• Ian Gelder as Charles
• Patrick Godfrey as Butler[2]
• Richard Cunningham as Chaplain[2]
• Nabil Elouahabi as The Bright-Eyed Man[6]
• Harry Melling as Sysselman[10]
• Omid Djalili as Dr Martin Lanselius[10][11]
• Ray Fearon as Mr Hanway,[4][2] Will's school boxing coach.
• Andrew Scott as Colonel John Parry,[12] a marine and explorer who is Will's father. In Lyra's world, he is known as Stanislaus Grumman.

• Helen McCrory as Stelmaria, Asriel's daemon.[13]
• Kit Connor as Pantalaimon, Lyra's daemon.[9]
• Eloise Little as Salcilia, Roger's daemon.[2]
• Phoebe Scholfield as Alicia, the Master's daemon.[2]
• Libby Rodliffe as Lyuba, Tony Costa's daemon.[2]
• Cristela Alonzo as Hester, Lee Scoresby's daemon.[9][10]
• David Suchet as Kaisa, Serafina Pekkala's daemon.[9][10]
• Peter Serafinowicz as Iofur Raknison

Additionally, lead puppeteer Brian Fisher provides the uncredited vocalisations for Mrs Coulter's monkey daemon.[9]

The three His Dark Materials novels, written by Philip Pullman from 1995 to 2000, achieved success in young-adult fiction, leading to the development of a 2007 feature film, The Golden Compass. The film received criticism from fans of the trilogy for the dilution of elements of the story that were critical of religion, as well as from some religious organisations for the source material's perceived anti-religious themes. When the film was released, sequels that would have adapted the other two novels in the series became unlikely due to the backlash from religious groups and the film's disappointing reception, according to Pullman.[24]

After several years, the rights reverted to Pullman. In November 2015, BBC One announced that it had commissioned a television adaptation of the trilogy, to be produced by Bad Wolf and New Line Cinema.[25] The eight-part[26] adaptation had a planned premiere date in 2017. In April 2017 writer Jack Thorne told Radio Times that the series was still in pre-production. He said, "It's at an exciting point where we're just throwing things at the page and trying to work out what works and what doesn't", and that he wanted to ensure that they were being loyal to the books.[27] Director Otto Bathurst explained that some elements of the book and film had been changed to give the series a more modern feel, compared to the original's Victoriana fantasy.[28]

On 12 September 2018, HBO was announced as the co-producer and international distributor of the series.[29] On 10 October 2018, Miranda reported that he had wrapped up filming for his role.[30] On 14 December 2018, it was announced that filming for the first series had wrapped.[31]

Before the series premiered, His Dark Materials was renewed for a second series of eight episodes.[32] Filming of the second season began before the premiere of the first season, which was considered "a necessary move considering the age of the show's young star".[33] As of early 2020, a decision has not been made on whether to commission a third series, based on The Amber Spyglass.[34][35] Filming for the second series was mostly completed before the COVID-19 pandemic caused production to shut down.[36]

Promotional image showing lead characters and locations

On 8 March 2018, it was announced that Dafne Keen had signed on to star in the series to play Lyra with director Tom Hooper signed on to direct. Lin-Manuel Miranda would star as Lee Scoresby.[37] On 8 June 2018, it was reported that James McAvoy, Clarke Peters, and Ruth Wilson had joined the cast.[38][39]

On 27 July 2018, the BBC and Bad Wolf revealed the cast and crew for the series.[40]

On 14 August 2019, it was announced that Lorne Balfe was hired to score the series. Speaking about the job, Balfe stated that he "wanted to write a musical letter to the creators of the show," also mentioning that the series was a "mammoth task" and one of his biggest projects yet. Scoring primarily took place in St David's Hall in Cardiff, Wales with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. While the ethnic Bulgarian choir was recorded in Bulgaria with additional remote sessions taking place at the Synchron Scoring Stage in Vienna, Austria with the Synchron Stage Orchestra.[41] Also featured on the score are cellist Tina Guo, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, classical French horn player Sarah Willis, violinist Lindsey Stirling and recordist Richard Harvey.[42] Two soundtrack albums were released; a musical anthology with thematic pieces and an album containing all the cues used in the series. Silva Screen Records released the albums digitally on 3 November 2019 and 20 December 2019 respectively.[43][44]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 81% based on reviews from 90 critics, with an average rating of 7.69/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "The daemon is in the details and while His Dark Materials' visual splendor and exceptional performances deftly capture the essence of Philip Pullman's seminal novels, it could use a little more magic."[52] On Metacritic, the series has a score of 69 out of 100 based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[53]

Dan Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "...this effort nails much of what makes the books pop, and both the special effects and a star-studded cast led by Dafne Keen and Ruth Wilson are in fine form." However he followed that by saying "What never fully worked for me in the four episodes [...] sent to critics is the necessary feeling of narrative and thematic momentum. It's vastly better than the movie, but neither fun nor smart enough to quite succeed."[54] Caroline Framke of Variety wrote: "Despite the rich complexities of the novel’s world of daemons, power-hungry players and warring faiths, HBO’s His Dark Materials feels like it could have been plucked from most any other fantasy epic out there."[55] Beth Elderkin of Gizmodo was critical of the show's inability to capture the connection between humans and daemons.[56]

Ben Lawrence of The Telegraph gave the first episode 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "a fine piece of drama, capturing the strangeness and childlike wonder of the books, but also their rigour and bite. This is intelligent populism writ large."[57] Huw Fullerton of the Radio Times gave the first episode a positive review: "While there is a slight element of table-setting in the series' first hour the appeal of the actors and setting are beguiling enough to pull you through all the exposition and explanation." Fullerton praised Wilson for her performance, saying she "nearly walks away with the whole series".[58] David Levesley of British GQ wrote that His Dark Materials as a whole illustrates the fundamental problem with remaking adaptations, writing "the execution doesn’t feel far enough removed from the previous version to actually make for a significantly better product."[59]