His Dark Materials is a young adult fantasy fiction drama based on Sir Philip Pullman’s popular trilogy of the same title. The first season majorly covers the events of the first book, Northern Lights, with a few creative tweaks.
The story is set in a parallel world with its fair share of similarities and dissimilarities with ours. It is majorly controlled by a religiopolitical organisation called the Magisterium, loosely based on the Catholic church, except for the North. In this alternate world, every human is accompanied by a daemon, the manifested versions of their souls in the form of an animal.
Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen), the chosen one is a rebellious 14-year-old who was dropped off as an infant at Oxford University, a “scholastic sanctuary” of sorts, by her uncle Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) for her protection. After her best friend Roger Parslow (Lewin Lloyd) goes missing, she is swayed by a mysterious Mrs Coulter to London, with the promise of getting Parslow back at the very core of their journey.
The young protagonist, however, is alien to the actual reason behind these recurrent kidnappings, the truth about her uncle’s mysterious adventures, the hidden agendas of the Magisterium, and the co-existence of parallel worlds, among many other secrets yet to be uncovered by her.
His Dark Materials Season 1 Web Series Cast, Episodes, Release Date, Trailer and Ratings
In the 2000s, as the Harry Potter film franchise was racking up billions of dollars at the box office worldwide, other studios tried to get in on the children's fantasy act. Disney kick started an adaptation of C.S. Lewis' seven-book series The Chronicles of Narnia, which ran for three entries before succumbing to falling critical and commercial reception. (Netflix will now attempt a do-over.) Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig led the big-screen adaptation of Sir Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials, which failed at the outset with The Golden Compass. It was deemed controversial for anti-religious themes, while funnily enough, others criticised it for diluting the elements that were critical of religion. A secondary problem was that Pullman's complex world wasn't suited for film.