After nearly two years since the announced renewal, HBO has revealed the first look at His Dark Materials season three. Entertainment Weekly shared exclusive images from the upcoming season. Two pics highlight the return of James McEvoy’s Lord Asriel. But what is more eye-catching is the first look at the angels featured in The Amber Spyglass, the third and final novel in Philip Pullman’s trilogy that the HBO series is based on. While they are described in the books as beings made of light, they are given a more physical form for television, with shimmering skin.
‘His Dark Materials’ Season 3 Features Angels and a Religious Battle
Angels play a big role in the novel and will surely play a big part in His Dark Materials season three as Lord Asriel recruits several of them in his battle against the Authority. The Authority is based on the God of the Bible, which Lord Asriel sees as a dictator that has enslaved humanity.
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy was published in the late 1990s, with the last novel released in 2000. The story’s central figure is Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen), who is prophesied to serve as the second Eve. She travels across parallel universes, eventually bonding with a young boy named Will Perry (Amir Wilson), with whom she forms a strong bond. Concepts in the novel include daemons, animals that exist outside the body but represent the human soul, and a substance called “dust,” which represents what Christians call original sin. A militant atheist, Pullman wrote the trilogy as a rebuttal to C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, believing that Christianity teaches people to repress what comes naturally to them as they go from children to adults. Pullman rejects this and encourages readers to do the same. He has said that the books are about “killing God.”
The first novel in the series, The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights in the U.K.), was adapted into a film in 2007, but the backlash from fans and Christians caused it to fail. Fans and critics have been impressed with HBO’s adaptation of His Dark Materials, and many are eager for season three, which will be the last.
HBO has not shared the release date for His Dark Materials season three.
