The HBO series Dark Materials, based on Philip Pullman’s best-selling fantasy trilogy, won the hearts of viewers around the world. The visually stunning production starring Ruth Wilson, James McAvoy and Lin-Manuel Miranda rewarded fans of the book series with over twenty years of waiting for adaptation. The second season of the series, enthusiastically received by viewers and critics, will debut on DVD on June 30.
This delightful HBO series is an adaptation of Philip Pullman’s cult fantasy trilogy. It tells the story of an orphaned girl and her extraordinary adventures in a parallel world where human souls are outside the body and take the form of talking animals – daemons. Season two begins a few hours after Series One’s tumultuous finale. A distressed Lyra (Dafne Keen) follows Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) to the mysterious city of Cittàgazze. She meets a boy there and learns that fate is ordering her to help him reunite with his father. Young people are hindered by the war between the sinister Magisterium and witches who want to fulfill the prophecy concerning Lyra.
The action of the series takes place in a world in which animals – feeling human emotions and speaking with a human voice – appear in two forms: daemons and armored bears. Each person who appears in the series has a daemon who accompanies him throughout his life. His physical appearance reflects the soul and personality of the man he is a part of. Daimons take the form of animals, but have human voices and intelligence. During childhood, each daemon can take the form of any creature, but at a certain stage of adolescence it takes on one final form that reflects the character of the person associated with it.
Dark Materials is a series based on Philip Pullman’s epic, award-winning fantasy trilogy, considered a modern-day masterpiece of the genre. The first part was published in 1995 and translated into 40 languages. It quickly won the bestseller title with nearly twenty million copies sold.
The stars of the production are Dafne Keen ( Logan ), who played the role of Lyra, Lin-Manuel Miranda ( Hamilton ) as Lee Scoresby, an aeronaut from Texas, Richard Cunningham ( Rogue One: Star Wars Stories ) as Gustaf, James McAvoy ( X-Men series ) played Lord Asriel, and Clarke Peters ( Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ) played the master overseeing Lyra’s upbringing. Ruth Wilson ( Luther series ) played the key female character of the entire trilogy, Marisa Coulter, an extremely beautiful, influential, former lover of Lord Asriel, mother of Lyra.
The fun of playing Lee is that this is a guy from a fascinating world that I would like to be in. I still don’t have much of Philip Pullman’s world, I am glad that it is growing, that the second trilogy is being released, because I want to spend as much time in this world as possible – emphasizes Lin-Manuel Miranda.
I would like viewers to like my Lyra, I tried to be as loyal as possible to what Philip Pullman wrote it – adds Dafne Keen.
The Dark Materie series is produced by Bad Wolf and New Line Cinema for BBC One and HBO. The executive producers are Dan McCulloch, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins and Julie Gardner for Bad Wolf; Philip Pullman, Jack Thorne, Tom Hooper, Otto Bathurst; Deborah Forte, Toby Emmerich and Carolyn Blackwood for New Line Cinema; and Ben Irving and Piers Wenger for BBC One.
Special features in the DVD edition:
- Exclusive Material: Noble Scoundrel. The legend of Lee Scoresby
- Dark Materials: Daemons
- Dark Materials: Armored Bears
- Dark Materials: Portals and the Multiverse
- Dark Materials: Witches
- Dark Materials: animating daemons and bears
- Dark Matter: An Exploration of the Cittàgazze
- Dark Matter: Worlds Collide
- The mighty Mrs. Coulter
- Lyra
- Magic knife
