BBC and Bad Wolf have officially announced the start of production on their His Dark Materials adaptation in Wales today. In addition, the remaining cast members that will be rounding out the cast of the series were officially confirmed.
Author Philip Pullman says: “I’m delighted that the production is under way, and I’m looking forward immensely to seeing how it looks. Bad Wolf has assembled a wonderful cast and I’m sure every HDM reader is as keen as I am to see it all coming together.”
Dafne Keen (Logan) will be playing the main character Lyra with Lin Manuel-Miranda (Hamilton, Mary Poppins Returns) as Lee Scoresby, James McAvoy (Split) as Lyra’s uncle, Lord Asriel and Clarke Peters (The Wire) playing The Master who trains Lyra. Ian Gelder (Queers) who will be portraying Librarian Scholar Charles, Ruth Wilson (The Affair) as the glamorous Mrs. Coulter, Will Keen (Wolf Hall) as Father MacPhail, Ariyon Bakare (Life) as Lord Boreal, and Georgina Campbell (Black Mirror) as journalist Adele Starminster.
New additions to the series include Anne-Marie Duff (Suffragette) as Ma Costa, James Cosmo (Game of Thrones) as Farder Coram, Lucien Msamati (Richard II) as John Faa, Mat Fraser (Cast Offs) as Raymond Van Geritt, with Geoff Bell (War Horse) as Jack Verhoeven, and Simon Manyonda (King Lear) as Benjamin de Ruyter.
The young actors joining the cast include Lewin Lloyd as Roger Parslow, Daniel Frogson as Tony Costa, Tyler Howitt as Billy Costa and Archie Barnes as Pantalaimon.
The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper will direct the eight-part series. The His Dark Materials adaptation will be produced by Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner’s Bad Wolf with New Line Cinema for BBC One. Hooper is also reportedly trying to fit in the live-action adaptation of the Broadway musical Cats for Universal Pictures and Working Title.
The His Dark Materials series was ordered by BBC One and was written by Jack Thorne (National Treasure) back in 2015. The book series consists of Northern Lights, which became the 2007 film The Golden Compass with Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. The stories are about the coming of age of two children, Lyra and Will, who move through parallel universes.
The film will be executive produced by Pullman, Tranter, gardner, Toby Emmerich and Caroline Blackwood for New Line, and Bethan Jones for BBC One and Deborah Forte for Scholastic.
