Is ‘His Dark Materials’ a sequel to ‘The Golden Compass’? Find out this and more about the fantasy drama series. Hence, its adaptation’s success was not shocking. Let’s find out more about Pullman’s series and the controversies that have surrounded it for more than a decade.
The first season of ‘His Dark Materials‘ took us into a world of daemons, parallel universes, nature of existence, gobblers, and much more. It introduced viewers to an eleven-year-old Lyra Belacqua in Jordan Collge. Lyra goes out to save her friend Roger who gets abducted by the Magisterium. Lyra then travels to the artic North to bring him back. To further help her, the master of the college gives Lyra a rare device known as the alethiometer, which has the power of unlocking secret truths. Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ has been a groundbreaking hit with the audience.
Writer Jack Thorne who wrote ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’, ‘The Fades’ and ‘This Is England’ is responsible for ‘His Dark Materials’ too.
HIGHLIGHTS —
- ‘His Dark Materials’, a sequel to ‘The Golden Compass’?
- Season 3 of ‘His Dark Materials’
- Why was ‘The Golden Compass’ banned?
‘His Dark Materials’, a sequel to ‘The Golden Compass’?
HBO’s ‘His Dark Materials’ is based on Philip Pullman’s fantasy novels series of the same name. The novels include “The Golden Compass” (also known as Northern Lights), “The Subtle Knife”, and “The Amber Spyglass”. Hence, ‘His Dark Materials’ is not based on Golden Compass or its sequel, it is a part. Earlier, in 2007, the makers had planned the novels into a trilogy of films so that every book would have a movie inspired from it. In the same year, ‘The Golden Compass’ movie was released starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.
The popular BBC–HBO series is based on all three books. It has already released two seasons and a third season is on the way. As expected, the third season will be the final season.
Writer Jack Thorne, who wrote “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”, “The Fades” and “This Is England” is responsible for ‘His Dark Materials’ too.
“I tried really hard. We did 46 drafts of episode one and we went down a lot of wrong corridors and sat in those corridors and wept. These books are monstrously good and when you are given an adaptation there are two forms. There is a seed of something brilliant that I can play with and make work and that’s another one where you go, ‘My job is just to get this as close to this as possible on the screen’”
Thorne told “Express.co.uk”.
Season 3 of ‘His Dark Materials’
The previous seasons aired in early November 2019 and 2020 respectively. The release date for the third season of ‘His Dark Materials’ has not been revealed yet. However, it can easily be expected to be based on the third and final book in Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ book series, “The Amber Spyglass”.
In an interview with “Entertainment Weekly”, executive producer Jane Tranter mentioned that the filming of season 3 of ‘His Dark Materials’ would begin in 2021. However, he was not sure if they would be going ahead with the two Lord Asriel episodes due to pandemic-related logistical issues.
Why was ‘The Golden Compass’ banned?
‘The Golden Compass’ has been banned from various catholic schools as they believe that Pullman’s trilogy bashes Christianity and promotes atheism. The plot of the books spurred controversies with several Christian groups. During the release of ‘The Golden Compass’ movie, the Catholic League campaigned against it, and its source material. In a 2002 interview with “Guardian”, Philip Pullman stated that organized religion is necessarily corrupt. He argued that whenever you get a political structure, with ranks and hierarchies, you get corruption. You get people who are more interested in progressing through those ranks than in doing good.
In another interview, he confessed that he does not profess any religion as he felt it is not possible that there is a God. He had the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words ‘spiritual’ or spirituality. Despite that, Pullman’s novels have sold over ten million copies. It has won many illustrious awards.
Pullman has been declared as one of the greatest writers in post-war Britain. He was also knighted for his contributions to literature.
