3 biggest reveals from His Dark Materials’ panel at San Diego Comic-Con

Culturess attended San Diego Comic-Con and got to see the His Dark Materials cast share what they could about the upcoming series. Here are the biggest reveals.

San Diego Comic-Con became a world of fantasy Thursday evening as the cast of His Dark Materials landed at the convention in Hall H.

The panel included stars Dafne Keen (Lyra Belacqua), Ruth Wilson (Marisa Coulter), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Lee Scoresby) and James McAvoy (Lord Asriel). Executive Producer Jane Tranter and writer Jack Throne also joined the stars in revealing what the could about the new series.

Culturess was at the spectacular panel and got to see everything that went down in Hall H for the new series, including the full trailer. Here are three of the biggest takeaways we learned while there.

They are staying faithful to the book

Fans of the His Dark Materials books must be giving a huge sigh of relief right now. It’s not often that book adaptations are done right on screen, and this fandom knows that more than ever after the mediocre movie The Golden Compass came out in 2007.

But rest assured, Thorne says he made sure that the HBO adaption was given special care.

"I always describe this as doing a Ph.D. The first thing you gotta do is do a Ph.D. in the author. That’s what I tried to do with Harry Potter, and that’s what I’ve tried to do with His Dark Materials — to know everything. And everything’s inside your head. So that then when you’re starting doing your adapting, you’ve got the novel with you. But you’ve also got a conception of the world inside you. And a truth, the truth that [author Philip Pullman] is trying to tell. And when you’re trying to translate it for television, you’re constantly keeping that truth in your hand… I think that’s what we’ve tried to do, is capture the important notes and tell them to the best of our ability."

The characters are truly compelling

Everybody was absolutely enamored with their characters. Even though Keen may have felt her character was “annoying” in nature (though she didn’t want to admit exactly that), they all knew that there was something compelling written about their characters.

For Wilson, it was knowing that her character was absolutely powerful. And we all know television can always use more complex, strongly written female characters.

"I started reading the books, and there’s a description of her as, she’s the cesspit of moral filth and the mother of all evil. And I thought, “Okay, I have to play this role.” And of course, it’s really fun to play that character, but what I find so fascinating with her is she’s so complicated and unknowable. And she’s frightening for that reason. But what we’ve done — and Philip Pullman gave us license to dig a bit deeper in for her, and to see her on her own with her monkey. To see who she is without Lyra and why she might do the things she does."

Some of the cast are not like their dæmons

In the show, Lyra’s dæmon (Pan) is quite complicated, as he can take many forms. Wilson’s dæmon is a monkey, Lee’s is an arctic hare, and Asriel’s is a snow leopard. But the cast that portrays these characters find themselves completely different from their on-screen daæmons.

If they could have dæmons in real life, McAvoy thinks his would be a sea otter because they’re “exceptionally happy and playful… and they just love eating and playing and sleeping.” (Same, honestly.) Wilson said hers would be a sphinx, and Keen said hers would be a little tropical monkey.

As for New Yorker Lin-Manuel Miranda: “Pizza rat. Have you ever seen the footage of the rat taking pizza down into the subway platform? … That’s my dæmon.”

His Dark Materials premieres on HBO this fall. Keep up with Culturess as we report more from San Diego Comic-Con!