Director general Tony Hall has revealed at a government committee appearance that His Dark Materials is getting a second series at the BBC.
“We are making two series of Philip Pullman’s ‘[His] Dark Materials,’” he confirmed. “The cost per episode is high – it’s really ambitious.”
According to Variety, Hall seemingly broke this surprising news to the public as he was proud of the new show, describing it as “the sort of piece the BBC should make.”
Produced by Doctor Who and A Discovery Of Witches company Bad Wolf, His Dark Materials is still in production on series 1, and is set to follow Philip Pullman’s bestselling fantasy book series, which includes The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, with a lot more care and detail than the Hollywood adaptation did.
The director general also let slip that the second series will also consist of 8 episodes, but it’s unclear at this time whether Jack Thorne (Kiri, The Fades) will continue to be the writer on series 2, or whether Tom Hooper (The Danish Girl) will return to direct.
The cast – and cost – of the Beeb’s His Dark Materials adaptation is indeed very big. Dafne Keen (Logan) will be playing heroine Lyra in the series, with James McAvoy (Split, It: Chapter 2) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) in major supporting roles.
More on series 2 as it breaks.