HBO’s “His Dark Materials” will return for its second season on Nov. 16, the network announced Monday.
The second season picks up following the events of the Season 1 finale, which saw Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) open a bridge to a new world, and Lyra (Dafne Keen), distraught over the death of her best friend, following him into the unknown. Season 2 finds Lyra in a strange and mysterious abandoned city — Cittàgazze — where she meets Will (Amir Wilson), who is also running from a troubled past.
Based on Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” novel series, the second season will take its story from the second book, “The Subtle Knife.”
Jade Anouka, Simone Kirby and Terence Stamp join the series this season. The returning cast members include Keen, Wilson, Amir Wilson and Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as the previously announced Andrew Scott.
Anouka plays Ruta Skadi, a witch Queen, who joins forces with Serafina Pekkala (Ruta Gedmintas) against the Magisterium. Kirby is Dr Mary Malone who heads up the Dark Matter Research Team at an Oxford university in our world. Stamp, who previously starred in a BBC Radio adaptation of the series, joins the cast as Giacomo Paradisi, the bearer of the Subtle Knife who lives in the Tower of the Angels in Cittàgazze.
The series is executive produced by Dan McCulloch, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins and Julie Gardner for Bad Wolf, alongside Philip Pullman, Jack Thorne, Tom Hooper, Otto Bathhurst. Deborah Forte, Toby Emmerich and Carolyn Blackwood of New Line Cinema; and Ben Irving and Piers Wenger of BBC One also executive produce.