his dark materials james 1

James McAvoy gives His Dark Materials season three update - and it sounds amazing 

The third season will be adapted from The Amber Spyglass 

TV & Film Editor
June 16, 2021

James McAvoy has given us the latest details on His Dark Materials season three, and we're so excited to see the third and final instalment of the show!

MORE: His Dark Materials season three: everything we know so far

Chatting on The One Show the Filth actor, who plays Lord Asriel in the popular BBC series, said that filming was going "really good" before giving some details on what to expect!

WATCH: His Dark Materials season two trailer

He said: "What can I tell you? It's war. At the end of the second season we sort of declare war on the Kingdom of Heaven, so yeah it gets pretty down and dirty, and there's gonna be a lot of fisticuffs and a lot of explosions and all that stuff. But at its heart it's about a wee girl and a wee boy... and not the adults with the egos."

James plays Asriel in the hit show 

James unfortunately only made one very short appearance in season two after a special episode focused entirely on his character was forced to be cut due to the pandemic. The episode was set to follow Lord Asriel in the aftermath of his opening a bridge to another world, as he attempted to track down angels to help him wage war against the Magisterium. 

MORE: His Dark Materials: what happens at the end of the books?

MORE: Is His Dark Materials star Andrew Scott in a relationship? Find out here

Speaking about being forced to cut the episode, the show's producer Jane Tranter said: "What we had to do was look at the episodes we have and check the information in the episodes we had and re-edit.

The story centres of Lyra and Will

"We built up a sequence, a visual effects sequence at the start of episode four that essentially told through image and a voiceover about the history of the Knife in order to put it into as much context as possible... I think that crushing it from eight episodes to seven did give it a feeling of great intensity, and I think that added to the sense of brooding anxiety that I've spoken about." 

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