After years of waiting, the BBC has released the first teaser for its upcoming television adaptation of Sir Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series.
The teaser trailer, which premiered on BBC's official YouTube channel, introduces many of the series main characters, though it doesn't give much away about the story. Daemons -- one of the key components of the series -- are notably absent from the trailer, though it's not clear at this time why.
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The series is based on a trilogy of novels written by Pullman. The novels were received with critical acclaim owing to the depth of their characters and world. Favorable comparisons have often been made between His Dark Materials and other fantasy epics, such as Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. The story was adapted once before in 2007 with The Golden Compass, which opened to mixed to negative reviews, citing the film's inability to satisfyingly capture the core elements of Pullman's complex fantasy world.
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The BBC announced the eight-part series in 2015. According to writer Jack Thorne, the series will remain as faithful as possible to the source material. The books have proven controversial in the past due to their depiction of organized religion, which is often interpreted as commentary on certain real world faiths. It remains to be seen if the BBC series will avoid the same controversy or if it will reignite debate.
His Dark Materials stars Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, James McAvoy, Clarke Peters and Lin-Manuel Miranda. As of yet, no release date has been announced.