His Dark Materials - Season 3
Series two received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the second series has an approval rating of 85% based on reviews from 33 critics, with an average rating of 6.87/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "His Dark Materials' chilly emotional core and imposing complexity is unlikely to win over the unconverted, but its sophomore season rewards the faithful with impeccable production values and cerebral thrills."[85] On Metacritic, series 2 has a score of 71 out of 100 based on reviews from 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[86]
Series three received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the final series has an approval rating of 90% based on reviews from 21 critics, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "In perhaps its most stirring season, the final installment of His Dark Materials rewards its viewers with a heart-wrenching conclusion befitting this faithful adaptation."[90] Stuart Jeffries of The Guardian gave it four out of five stars, praising the performances and visual effects.[91]
His Dark Materials is produced by Bad Wolf in association with New Line Cinema for BBC One and HBO. Executive producing the series are Jane Tranter, Dan McCulloch, Joel Collins and Julie Gardner for Bad Wolf; Philip Pullman, Jack Thorne, Tom Hooper; Deborah Forte, Toby Emmerich and Carolyn Blackwood for New Line Cinema; and Ben Irving for the BBC. The show premiered on HBO back in late 2019, with every season adapting one book from the series.
His Dark Materials Season 3 aired debuted on December 5, 2022, and concluded its run on December 26, 2022. The season was critically acclaimed with an approval rating of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Certainly not a bad way to end the show. His Dark Materials: The Complete Third Season and His Dark Materials: The Complete Series will be available online and in-store at major retailers on April 25.
His Dark Materials, HBO's TV series adaptation, finally gets to dig into all of that in the third and final season, premiering this December. But the elements that had the team pulling their hair out the most were the angels.
His Dark Materials season 1 introduced Dafne Keen as Lyra Belacqua, a young girl from a parallel world where a person's soul exists outside the body in the form of a talking animal companion called a daemon. (Lyra's daemon is Pan, voiced by Heartstopper breakout Kit Connor.) The angels are now descending onto the scene at a time when her world has expanded a great deal. She met Will Parry (Amir Wilson), a young boy from our world and the destined bearer of the Subtle Knife, an artifact with the ability to cut open portals to other universes. And there's a prophecy making the rounds that foresees Lyra as the new Eve (as in Adam and Eve) who will make a choice that affects all of humanity.
Tranter reveals that the team came up with a "very beautiful painted legend that happens at the start of the first episode" this season to explain the angels' role in all this mythology in His Dark Materials.
Season 2 was the production's first time realizing these heavenly creatures on screen through the form of six-winged statues made in their honor. Tranter says, "We never moved away from that being the shape of the wings." After speaking to Mary Malone (Simone Kirby), the angels then emerged at the end of season 2... well, kind of. They appeared within balls of light, but their specific forms were intentionally left blurry. "We weren't ready to entirely commit to what they were," Tranter notes of that moment.
In season 3, the angels will now take more physical forms. Actors Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Justice League), Simon Harrison (Endeavour), and Chipo Chung (Into the Badlands) will portray Balthamos, Baruch, and Xaphania, respectively, some of the noteworthy rebel angels from this story. "All the makeup was insane," Keen recalls. "I remember being on set with