HBO Debuts First Trailer for His Dark Materials S2 at San Diego Comic-Con @ Home

Trailers and previews continue to come from San Diego’s virtual Comic Con @ Home, running all this weekend. HBO released the first trailer for the second season of Its dark materials, an adaptation of the best-selling fantasy trilogy by Philip Pullman. While there were supposed to be eight episodes in this second season, just like S1, production closed due to the pandemic. So there will only be seven episodes.

(Some spoilers for S1 below).

First published in 1995, the three books in the series are The Golden Compass (published as Aurora borealis in the United Kingdom), The subtle knifeand The amber spyglass. They follow the adventures of a 12-year-old girl named Lyra, who lives in a fictionalized version of Oxford, England, around the Victorian era. They all have a companion demon in the form of an animal, part of their spirit that resides outside the body; Lyra’s name is Pantalaimon. Lyra discovers a sinister plot that sends her on a journey to find her father in hopes of thwarting the plot. That journey takes her to different dimensions (the fictional world is a multiverse) and, ultimately, to her own coming of age.

The HBO / BBC One adaptation mainly covered the events of The Golden Compass, although S1 also included characters and events from The subtle knife—Most notable, featuring the character of Will Parry (Amir Wilson), who befriends a fleeing Lyra and owns the titular knife, which can cut the curtain between universes. According to the official HBO S1 synopsis:

[T]The first season follows Lyra (Dafne Keen, Logan), an apparently ordinary but brave young woman from another world. Her search for a kidnapped friend uncovers a sinister plot involving stolen children, and turns into a quest to understand a mysterious phenomenon called Dust. While traveling the worlds, including ours, Lyra meets Will (Amir Wilson), a determined and brave boy. Together, they find extraordinary beings and dangerous secrets, with the fate of both the living and the dead in their hands.

The first season received mixed reviews, but it deserved an honorable mention in our 2019 year-end TV roundup. I called it “a visually beautiful, skillfully marked and sketched series bringing to life the fictional Pullman multiverse. Dafne Keen is perfectly portrayed as the feisty and adventurous protagonist, Lyra, while Ruth Wilson’s tense acting brings out Mrs. Coulter’s almost savage cruelty, along with her cunning sophistication and a touch of vulnerability. Not perfect, but definitely a improvement over the uneven 2007 film adaptation, The Golden Compass“

In the S1 finale, Lyra finally finds her father, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), but learns that he has dire designs on his best friend Roger, whom Lyra had rescued from Bolvangar’s experimental facilities. Lord Asriel needs an energy source to open a bridge between the worlds of the multiverse, thus promoting his research. And separating a child from his demon is the best source of that energy, except that Roger is killed in the process. Lyra decides to follow Lord Asriel across the multiverse bridge. Meanwhile, Will Parry discovers his own entrance to the multiverse. That’s where we left it.

According to the official description of S2:

Lord Asriel has opened a bridge to a new world and, distressed by the death of her best friend, Lyra (Dafne Keen) follows Asriel into the unknown. In a strange and mysterious abandoned city, she meets Will, a boy from our world who also runs away from a troubled past. Lyra and Will learn that their destinies are linked to reuniting Will with their father, but discover that their path is constantly thwarted as a war begins around them. Meanwhile, Mrs. Coulter searches for Lyra, determined to take her home by whatever means necessary.

The S2 trailer opens with Lyra exploring the new world she finds herself in before meeting Will. Both realize that neither is from this world. Meanwhile, Ms Coulter has entrusted Lord Carlo Boreal (Ariyon Bakare) of the Magisterium (who has found his own portal between the worlds) to find Lyra and take her home. “There are several worlds out there, and people will be looking for her, not all of them are good,” she says.

As for the Magisterium, the trailer promises that he is determined to “take control”. That will put him in direct conflict with a witch coven, among other factions. And is that a glimpse of the physics Mary Malone of The amber spyglass?

The second season of Its dark materials It will air this fall on HBO. In the meantime, you can catch up on S1 on HBO and HBO Max.

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