BBC Hit His Dark Materials Returns to Production

His Dark Materials, returns to production with an epic third series of the Bafta Award-winning BBC and HBO co-production based on Philip Pullman’s final novel in the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass.

THE NEW series will see Will, played by Amir Wilson, the bearer of The Subtle Knife, and Lyra, played by Dafne Keen, the prophesied child, travel through multiple worlds to find and protect each other.

New cast for series three includes Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Commander Ogunwe and Jamie Ward as Father Gomez. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Simon Harrison, and Chipo Chung are the rebel angels Balthamos, Baruch and Xaphania; while Ama will be played by Amber Fitzgerald-Woolfe.

Returning cast also include Will Keen, Dafne’s Spanish dad in real life, as Father President MacPhail, Jade Anouka as Ruta Skadi and Ruta Gedmintas as Serafina Pekkala.

Amit Gupta will lead as director of the opening two episodes, to be followed by Charles Martin and Weronika Tofilska.

Production will once again take place in the sound stages at Wolf Studios Wales and on location throughout Wales and England.

At the end of series two Lord Asriel called upon the angels to help him wage a war against the Kingdom of Heaven, as Mrs Coulter abducted her daughter Lyra to take her to ‘safety’ in their own world.

Series three opens with Lyra unconscious, having been given a sleeping draught by her mother, as Will, still carrying the Subtle Knife, continues his quest to find her. Will is tracked down by two angels – Balthamos and Baruch – who wish to take him to join Lord Asriel’s campaign against The Authority with Commander Ogunwe. But Will is not the only one after Lyra, with Father President MacPhail continuing his mission to destroy the child of the prophecy, employing the help of his most committed follower, Father Gomez.

Meanwhile Oxford physicist Mary Malone reaches another parallel world – that of the Mulefa, a strange animal-like species where they tell her of a cataclysmic phenomenon in their world.

With multiple new worlds, including the Land Of The Dead, returning characters and featuring strange new creatures the Mulefa and Gallivespians, the third series will bring Philip Pullman’s masterpiece to a dramatic conclusion.

Executive Producer Jane Tranter said, “The Amber Spyglass is the most gloriously complex of Philip Pullman’s novels to adapt for TV, but with our world-class creative team in Cardiff no challenge is too daunting.

“This series is both an epic adventure and a story about love and truth. Jack, Francesca and Amelia’s scripts capture the brilliance of Philip’s worlds and we are joined by our much-loved existing cast and some exceptional talent new to the series,” she added.

Philip Pullman’s award-winning trilogy of the same name, is considered a modern masterpiece of imaginative fiction and has sold over 18 million copies worldwide. The Amber Spyglass is the first children’s novel to win the prestigious Whitbread Book of the Year in 2001 and the first children’s novel to be long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.

His Dark Materials series two averaged over six million viewers on BBC One. Series one and two are streaming now on BBC iPlayer.

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