The first season of the TV adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy premieres this weekend, and in an interview with Deadline, Jane Tranter, co-founder of the Bad Wolf production company behind the show, discusses the journey of bringing the book-to-screen adaptation to life, as well as future plans for the rest of Pullman’s materials.
One of the driving factors that played into filming and scoring a 16-episode order for the show was both Dafne Keen’s age, and the age of Lyra, the character she plays, according to Tranter.
We mainly wanted to make sure that we didn’t wait too long because otherwise by the time we came to film again, [Dafne Keen] could be 18 months older and at that age, you grow up very fast and season two picks up days after season one ends. We had that to consider.
The first two seasons of the HBO series are based on Northern Lights/The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife, respectively. Season 2 as already entered pre-production, and it sounds like the production team is already considering their endgame.
In the third book, The Amber Spyglass, Lyra is around 16 years of age, which, in success, would allow Bad Wolf to film in 2021. Tranter admits that if ordered, she would like to split the “huge” and “sprawling” book into two seasons.
Although Asriel’s battle with self-styled Heaven is somewhat glossed over in The Amber Spyglass, would expanding that onscreen really lead to the need for two seasons? And if so, where would they split the story of the final book? Between Lyra’s rescue and the land of the dead?
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Even the plot development and the character development in The Amber Spyglass, splitting the book makes sense. However, isn’t Lyra younger in this book?
No way was Lyra 16 years old in The Amber Spyglass. That book starts pretty much right after the previous one ended. Are they going to claim that Lyra’s mother kept her asleep/captive for years? Or that years passed while she (& Will & the Gallivespians) was in the land of the dead?
Lyra was 12 by the end of the original trilogy, it’s been confirmed in The Secret Commonwealth which states as such a few times (original trilogy implies 11-12 throughout the whole thing) and the fact that she only just came into puberty at the time is a plot point for the end of the trilogy. If this was something she had in mind the entire time then they should’ve gone with a different actress.
They’d have to really bullshit things kind of like with Sansa except here they would have her be “older” at the same time somehow. I’m not a fan of this sort of thing.
I’ve wondered in the past if the execs that balked at greenlighting sequels to Golden Compass may have done so for more than financial reasons.
Pullman’s story is very odd when you squint at it. He’s an atheist engaging with religious material, including the death of “God” (or whoever that figure is the angels are carting around). Then his heroine descends into the afterlife itself, emulating Jesus. And finally, Lyra and Will become the new Adam and Eve, essentially having sex at a very early age. This could get squicky if not handled well. Even if they age her a few years, still a potential landmine.
Then there’s the hero of the first volume of the new trilogy, who meets Lyra as an infant, then becomes her professor at the college and is apparently in love with her. Maybe another landmine to deal with if they adapt it. Haven’t read the most recent volume, which is supposedly set 10 years after the original three, but one review mentioned a horrific rape occurring to a well-known/beloved character. At this point I don’t even want to think about it.
@@.-@ In The Secret Commonwealth Lyra says she and Will only ever kissed.
It’s actually attempted rape of a beloved character. It wasn’t pleasant to read, but it’s a short, easy to skip section. That being said, I was surprised Pullman made it so clear what was happening because there is a rape in La Belle Sauvage, but it’s (thankfully) so vaguely shown that it’s very easy to miss.
@5. amanda: The relevant passage at end of chapter 37:
“Will put his hand on hers. A new mood had taken hold of him, and he felt resolute and peaceful. Knowing exactly what he was doing and exactly what it would mean, he moved his hand from Lyra’s wrist and stroked the red-gold fur of her dæmon. Lyra gasped. But her surprise was mixed with a pleasure so like the joy that flooded through her when she had put the fruit to his lips that she couldn’t protest, because she was breathless. With a racing heart she responded in the same way: she put her hand on the silky warmth of Will’s dæmon, and as her fingers tightened in the fur, she knew that Will was feeling exactly what she was. And she knew, too, that neither dæmon would change now, having felt a lover’s hands on them. These were their shapes for life: they would want no other. So, wondering whether any lovers before them had made this blissful discovery, they lay together as the earth turned slowly and the moon and stars blazed above them.”
(Philip Pullman. The Amber Spyglass)
That’s more than just kissing. It’s established in the previous book that touching another person’s daemon is forbidden. Mrs. Coulter seduces a man in the middle volume by having her daemon engage with his. She never touches him, but he experiences pleasure.
Plus remember that Lyra is aptly named. She is an inveterate liar throughout the original series. So much so that other characters just expect her to make up stories. Don’t know the context in which she talks about Will in the newest volume, but she at least seems to be minimizing her experience.
@6: That is an intimate moment but it is not sex. I must admit that for years the description of Will and Lyra as “lovers” held a huge question mark for me as to what it meant precisely. I’ll admit that I felt quite uncomfortable with the possible implications and was relieved when I read of Lyra’s*thoughts* in the newest book where she remembered that she and Will had only kissed. I think Pullman himself was actually taking this opportunity to clarify what he really meant presumably in response to the ‘squick’ reaction of others.
@&. It stops short of describing the act, but in context it’s clear what’s intended. They touch intimately, discover pleasure, then go to lie down under the willow tree. There’s even fruit involved like in the original Eden. I forget where, but there’s also the suggestion that the two daemons go off on their own. Pan will tell Lyra about it when she’s older.
Will and Lyra experience physical love as a way to gain knowledge. Their act is a choice which releases Dust back in the world, which defeats destiny and the Church, while restoring free will. Asriel wins, Metatron loses.
I think Pullman’s intentions were pure in the original trilogy. But sounds like he’s pulling back from the implications of what he set up. I suppose the message that loss of innocence thru physical contact and gaining knowledge is not sinful is a positive one. But subverting Adam and Eve and the doctrine of original sin is very delicate stuff if you do it with kids of twelve or thirteen.
Hopefully the showrunners have figured it out.
@6 I’m sorry, I should have given a bit of context for her statement: Farder Coram tells her the Gyptians thought she and Will were maybe a little too close, and Lyra tells him they never went beyond kissing. She isn’t denying their intimacy and there’s no indication she’s lying; in fact, a big part of The Secret Commonwealth has to do with Lyra losing her imagination and the ease with which she used to spin lies.
The scene you quote is incredibly intimate on the page, but what would it really look like on screen? They eat some fruit, pet some animals and share a few kisses. I think the greater challenge would be communicating how profound this exchange is rather than toning it down to avoid any squickiness. I really hope the TV series handles it well, but I’m not holding out hope since they apparently can’t even get Lyra’s age right.
@9. amanda: thanks for the context. Agree that it will hinge on how they handle it, maybe conveying emotional intimacy, rather than physical.
IIRC he’s said that partly his books were a reaction to/against the Christian themes in the Narnia books. He wanted to write a children’s fantasy that was explicitly atheist as a counterpoint.
@11. phuzz: sure. but he ends up trying to create a new “dispensation,” or “divine order” as some religious folks would say. That internal tension doesn’t resolve well in favor of an atheist viewpoint, especially when you affirm the existence of an afterlife and your heroine literally travels to limbo and hell, plus a new Paradise. Also, the new order is based on magical Dust, which is a far cry from a particle physics based universe. And don’t forget literally external souls in the form of daemons.
Maybe that unresolved tension is what draws readers to this story.
It is not an HBO production at all its a BBC (a British Broadcaster and film maker) and Bad Wolf productions ( A Welsh production company), HBO only have the international rights outside the EU.