Continuation of the story: the release date of the second season of the series "Dark Beginnings" has become known

American television network HBO has announced the premiere date for the second season of His Dark Materials.

The release will take place on November 16 at 21:00 local time.

In addition, the season will appear on the company's streaming service.

In the second season, Terence Stamp, Simone Kirby and Jade Anouka will join the cast of the project.

Daphne Keane (Lyra Belaqua), Ruth Wilson (Mrs Coulter), Amir Wilson (Will Parry), James McAvoy (Lord Azriel), Erion Bacare (Lord Boreal) and others will return to their roles.

Dark Principles is a collaboration between New Line Cinema and BBC Studios.

As Deadline notes, the project team is preparing a script for the third season in case they decide to put it into production.

The series "Dark beginnings" is based on the trilogy of the same name by British writer Philip Pullman.

It includes the novels Northern lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

The events of the first season repeat the events described in the first book.

The action of "Northern Lights" takes place in a universe invented by Pullman, in which travels are made in airships, and witches and talking armored bears coexist side by side with people.

But the main thing is that in this world every person has a daemon - a part of the soul that takes the form of an animal and is always close to the "owner".

If the human and the daemon are separated, both will die.

In the story, a girl named Lyra Belaqua, an orphan, and her damon Panteleimon from his native Oxford move to London, to a certain benefactor Mrs. Coulter.

At the same time, children, including Lyra's friend, begin to disappear in the area.

Lyra realizes that Mrs. Coulter has something to do with this, runs away from her and goes in search of the boy.

In the second part of the trilogy, the book "The Miraculous Knife", Lyra enters one of the parallel worlds and meets the boy Will Parry.

Together they search for their fathers and the source of the mysterious Dust.

In the Dark Beginnings series, Pullman raises many philosophical and religious issues.

Because of this, the books were subjected to massive criticism from Catholic organizations.

• © Shot from the series "Dark beginnings" (2019)

First season

The first season of Dark Beginnings aired in November 2019 and received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics.

So, the rating of the series on Rotten Tomatoes is about 80% both among the audience and among film critics.

“Despite the fact that the BBC worked with HBO on the new series, so far it looks like this time the ideas (from the book.

) will not suffer,” - said Lucy Mangan of The Guardian.

"The new series based on Philip Pullman's hit book Dark Beginnings fully confirms that television is the best platform for filming epic fantasy novels today," writes Slate's Laura Miller.

She also emphasized that without the possibility of stretching the narrative into eight episodes, much would almost certainly be lost or be reduced beyond recognition.

“The show has room for big adventures, frank conversations, stunning views, and character reveal,” adds Miller.

Some experts were still not satisfied with the structure of the tape (for example, unjustified transitions from one storyline to another);

the forced simplification of Pullman's universe, which makes it similar to other cinematic worlds;

and also the impossibility of capturing the intellectual subtext of books in the film adaptation.

Still, most critics agree on one thing: Dark Beginnings is the best adaptation of the Pullman series of novels possible.

IndieWire's Libby Hill thinks that making the perfect adaptation of Philip Pullman's Dark Beginnings trilogy may be an impossible task, but HBO is the closest to date.

Hill, like many others, in connection with "Dark Principles" recalled the film adaptation of the first part of the trilogy, the novel "Northern Lights", which was released in 2007.

Experts continue to scold this film adaptation to this day.

“And these are not empty words, if we recall the filmed, albeit with good intentions, but a disastrous film of 2007, which managed to express the scale - but not the emotions - of the philosophically inspired trilogy of youth novels,” the critic explains.

• © Still from the film "Golden Compass" (2007)

The picture "The Golden Compass" (it is under these names Pullman's book was published in the USA) was shot by Chris Weitz, better known for the films "American Pie" and "Twilight.

Saga.

New moon".

The roles in the tape were played by Dakota Blue Richards (Lyra), Nicole Kidman (Mrs Coulter), Daniel Craig (Lord Azriel), Eva Green (Seraphina Pekkala) and others.

With a budget of $ 180 million, the film grossed more than $ 370 million, and the box office was made thanks to international distribution.

Nevertheless, the Golden Compass received mostly negative criticism.

Experts noted the visual effects of the picture (and it was for the visual effects that it received an Oscar), but scolded the script, which left no trace of the essence and message of Pullman's books.

The writer also criticized the film negatively (but at the same time praised some of the actors).

It is noteworthy that in his film adaptation, Weitz smoothed out Pullman's religious message and did not draw direct parallels between the Magisterium and the Catholic Church.

Nevertheless, the release of the film was accompanied by a scandal, and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights called for a boycott of the release.