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His Dark Materials season 2 promised “before the end of the year”

His Dark Materials season 2 promised “before the end of the year”

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the Philip Pullman adaptation is on course to return to screen – and now work has begun on adapting third novel The Amber Spyglass

Huw Fullerton

Published: Monday, 27 April 2020 at 5:02 pm

While the coronavirus pandemic means that all sorts of films and TV shows are finding themselves delayed, some shows have been lucky enough to dodge the worst of the disruption – including Philip Pullman adaptation His Dark Materials.

Having already filmed the majority of season two in 2019 and early 2020 (shooting back to back with the first run of episodes), it already seemed like the fantasy drama had a good shot at delivering new episodes later this year – and now the series’ executive producer Jane Tranter appears to have confirmed that the follow-up is well on its way during a Twitter Q&A session called #AskHDM.

"Post-production is continuing with characteristic intensity and energy, but now filtered down over BlueJeans," Tranter tweeted, revealing that the team were currently continuing work via videoconferencing software.

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"But rest assured, season 2 is coming and will be on air before the end of the year!"

Previously, RadioTimes.com had understood that some key scenes and pick-ups still needed to be shot for season two before the production could be delivered, thanks to scheduling conflicts during the initial filming process.

Tranter’s assertion that the series is on track could suggest that the production is confident of still managing to shoot those scenes before transmission (presumed to be this winter) once the UK lockdown has been relaxed. Depending on the length of the scenes and the scheduling this could mean shooting on a socially-distant set, or amending them to something simpler if they’re too involved to do so.

Still, however they pull it off it seems like good news for fans looking forward to His Dark Materials series two – and if that wasn’t enough, Tranter and series writer Jack Thorne also revealed that work has already begun on adapting the third book of Pullman’s His Dark Materials series The Amber Spyglass.

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"We are about to start developing scripts for s3 (The Amber Spyglass)," Tranter wrote, while Thorne tweeted out the edition of the book he was currently working from.

"I’m currently having the time of my life doing battle with this incredible book," he said.

Clearly the future’s bright – and slightly amber – when it comes to His Dark Materials.

His Dark Materials will return to BBC One in late 2020

Authors

Radio Times commissioning editor Huw Fullerton. He sits in front of a shelving unit, looking at the camera and smiling. He wears glasses and has a moustache

Huw FullertonCommissioning editor

Huw Fullerton is a commissioning editor for Radio Times magazine handling comedy, entertainment and specialist drama. In a previous regeneration, he covered all things sci-fi and fantasy for RadioTimes.com.

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