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The full cast of the BBC‘s upcoming big-budget His Dark Materials adaptation has been unveiled.
With shooting already underway in Wales, the BBC and producer Bad Wolf announced Friday that Georgina Campbell (Black Mirror, Krypton), Ian Gelder (Game of Thrones), Will Keen (The Crown), Anne-Marie Duff (Shameless, Suffragette), James Cosmo (Game of Thrones, Braveheart), Geoff Bell (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Lucian Msamati (Game of Thrones), Simon Manyonda and Mat Fraser have joined the cast.
The series, adapted from Philip Pullman’s novels by Jack Thorne, had already announced a major lead cast of Logan breakout Dafne Keen, plus Lin-Manuel Miranda, James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Clarke Peters (The Wire), and Ariyon Bakare (Rogue One).
Keen takes on the lead role of Lyra, the young protagonist of the story who lives in Jordan College, Oxford. Placed there at the request of her Uncle, Lord Asriel (McAvoy), she lives a sheltered life amongst the scholars and college staff while under the watchful protection of The Master (Peters) and Librarian Scholar Charles (Gelder).
When the glamorous and mesmeric Mrs. Coulter (Wilson) enters Lyra’s life, she embarks upon a dangerous journey of discovery from Oxford to London. Here she meets Father MacPhail (Will Keen), Lord Boreal (Bakare) and journalist Adele Starminster (Campbell) at a glittering society party where she first hears about the sinister General Oblation Board.
Lyra is subsequently thrown into the nomadic world of the boat-dwelling Gyptians — Ma Costa (Duff), Farder Coram (Cosmo), John Faa (Msamati), Raymond Van Gerrit (Fraser), Jack Verhoeven (Bell) and Benjamin de Ruyter (Manyonda) — who take her North in her quest.
Once in the North, she meets charismatic aeronaut and adventurer Lee Scoresby (Miranda) who joins them on their epic journey and becomes one of Lyra’s closest allies.
Talented young actors joining the cast include Lewin Lloyd as Roger Parslow, Daniel Frogson as Tony Costa, Tyler Hewitt as Billy Costa and Archie Barnes as Pantalaimon.
“I’m delighted that the production is underway, and I’m looking forward immensely to seeing how it looks,” said Pullman. “Bad Wolf has assembled a wonderful cast and I’m sure every HDM reader is as keen as I am to see it all coming together.”
Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Miserables) will lead as director and helm the first two episodes, with Dawn Shadforth directing episode three and Otto Bathurst (Robin Hood, Peaky Blinders) directing four and five. Other directors will be announced in due course.
Dan McCulloch (Victoria, Endeavour) serves as executive producer, and Laurie Borg (Peaky Blinders, Black Mirror) produces.
His Dark Materials is produced by Bad Wolf and New Line Cinema for BBC One, in association with BBC Studios Distribution and Anton Capital Entertainment SCA. The series will be filmed in Cardiff at Wolf Studios Wales.
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