Things Get Very Intense In The New Trailer For HBO’s ‘His Dark Materials’ Adaptation

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series is one of the most beloved entries in the canon of young adult fiction.

It’s not hard to see why. Sure, the books have all the fantasy trappings that you could otherwise find in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe or the Harry Potter series. But what sets it apart from those books is how much it has on its mind. While C.S. Lewis’ fantasy epic is a retelling of the Bible, and J.K. Rowling’s saga is about good and evil in the broadest possible terms, His Dark Materials is about faith; belief; the Church; evolution; innocence… The list goes on.

Which is why it’s been odd that the series has never successfully been adapted for the screen. While other best-selling books have become blockbuster franchises, His Dark Materials has only seen one, very ungainly, translation to the multiplex. That film, written and directed by Chris Weitz, lost big bucks at the box office, nixing any opportunity for future films.

Well, hopefully those unlucky fortunes are about to be changed with the release of a His Dark Materials TV series, a collaboration between HBO and the BBC.

Certainly the new series looks very promising. Rather than trying to cram too much plot into too little space, it looks like the name of the game here has been a reverence for Pullman’s source text. No corners have been cut, and every character has been given their considerable due.

It helps too that the series has an absolutely stacked cast, featuring everyone from Logan‘s Dafne Keen to Split‘s James McAvoy to Hamilton‘s Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Watch the trailer below, and then prepare for the release of the series, which will drop on November 4. Of course, that gives you more than enough time to re-read the books in preparation — which you absolutely should.