BBC Begins Production on His Dark Materials Fantasy Series

BBC and Bad Wolf have announced that they’ve begun production on their fantasy adaptation of His Dark Materials. Filming began on Friday in Wales on the series, which stars Dafne Keen, Lin Manuel-Miranda, James McAvoy, Clark Peters, Ian Gelder, Ruth Wilson, Will Keen, Ariyon Bakare, Georgina Campbell and more.

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 will be playing the main character Lyra. Manuel-Miranda will portray Lee Scoresby, McAvoy is Lyra’s uncle, Lord Asriel, and Peters plays The Master who trains Lyra. Gelder will be portraying Librarian Scholar Charles, Ruth Wilson is the glamorous Mrs. Coulter, Will Keen is Father MacPhail, Bakare is Lord Boreal, and Campbell plays journalist Adele Starminster. Newly-announced cast memebrs are Anne-Marie Duff as Ma Costa, James Cosmo as Farder Coram, Lucien Msamati as John Faa, Mat Fraser as Raymond Van Geritt, with Geoff Bell as Jack Verhoeven, and Simon Manyonda as Benjamin de Ruyter.

Tom Hooper will direct the eight-part series, which is based on the series by Pullman. The series was previously adapted into 2007’s The Golden Compass.