by Dark Materials season 3 could finish off HBO’s TV adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy, but according to one of the series’ executive producers, the author’s work is unlikely to be the final HBO adaptation.
Speaking privately to TechRadar ahead of the return of the HBO Max series, Jane Tranter revealed that her creative team is looking to adapt other stories from the His Dark Materials universe.
However, he added that future installments in the franchise will not come in the traditional fourth season format, or even entirely original content. Instead, Tranter wants to bring more of author Philip Pullman’s work to life on the small screen – including The Book of Dust, the sequel to Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.
“I didn’t keep it a secret,” Tranter said when asked if he wanted to adapt more of Pullman’s novels. “I would absolutely love to shoot The Book of Dust. Philip and I talked about it and we’re really keen to do it. [Showrunner] Jack Thorne made no secret that he also wanted to adapt Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison’s origin story, Once Upon a Time in the North. We want to keep these conversations going – we don’t want to stop them.”
Of course, bringing back Dafne Keen and Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lyra Silvertongue and Lee Scoresby for The Book of Dust and Once Upon a Time in the North, respectively, to star in these potential projects is subject to their availability.
Keen has started filming a new Star Wars TV show, The Acolyte, for Disney Plus. Keen describes it as “how the Sith infiltrated the Jedi order.” Meanwhile, Miranda recently landed the role of Hermes on Disney’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV show, which has been filming since June.
Other factors will also play a role in determining whether more His Dark Materials stories will be made into a live-action series, according to Tranter.
“We need Philip to finish writing them. [The Book of Dust novels]”And we need season three to be as successful as it should be for everyone to think, ‘Yes, we want to see Lyra’s journey continue’ or ‘Yes, we want to see the origins of Lyra’s journey’.” “
Since Amber Spyglass, the final book in Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, was released in October 2000, the award-winning author has written multiple spin-offs that can be adapted into their own show or TV show. Alternatively, some of Pullman’s short stories or novels, such as Lyra’s Oxford, can be folded into a series based on the plot of The Book of Dust. So there are many His Dark Materials books ripe for adaptation.
Still, as Tranter points out, much will depend on the success of His Dark Materials season 3. The first two seasons were similarly positively received by fans and critics, although not without fault. Dark Materials season 3 follows a similar path; In our review, we called the TV show’s third episode a “quite entertaining, albeit somewhat disappointing, final entry” whose “great moments of fan service are balanced by some wildly inconsistent creative decisions.”
So it’s up to general audiences and devoted His Dark Materials fans to decide whether Pullman’s seminal work should be transferred from page to screen.
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