After about 25 years, the story told in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials novels went truly mainstream in 2019 with the three-season adaptation by HBO and the BBC, which featured Bella Ramsey in a recurring role. The road to television was wrought with peril, however, including the failed 2007 film adaptation The Golden Compass. But even before that box-office disappointment, His Dark Materials earned its share of scorn.
That stemmed from the story's premise, which is atheistic in nature. It's shocking His Dark Materials wasn't more controversial, given that it railed against God, the Catholic Church and organized religion in general. Still, the series was a bane to many religious groups, and Pullman's novels became a regular on banned-book lists.
His Dark Materials' Anti-Christian Themes Were Controversial
HIs Dark Materials centers on two children who, along with allies like a talking polar bear, flying witches and animal familiars called daemons, attempt to circumvent the control of a church-like entity, the Magisterium. Meanwhile, the Magisterium seeks to maintain its stranglehold on the world by virtue of "dust," which is a stand-in for the concept of original sin. In many ways, the series is meant to be a retelling of John Milton's Paradise Lost, albeit one in which the tragedy of the Fall is rendered as a triumph. God himself doesn't come out of the story unscathed, either, as He is rendered as a cold, controlling tyrant.
This anti-religious -- particularly anti-Christian -- rhetoric garnered the series an unsavory reputation among the faithful. British journalist Peter Hitchens dubbed Pullman the most dangerous author in Britain in a Mail on Sunday column, stating he was the antithesis to C.S. Lewis that atheists had been metaphorically praying for. The American Library Association's 2008 banned book list identified the title as the second-most challenged book in the United States.
Pullman himself only egged on the controversy, as he publicly stated (via the Christian Science Monitor) that he aimed to undermine Christian beliefs. According to Australia's ABC News, he'd also said in the past that he saw Lewis' iconic fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia as "propaganda in the service of a life-hating ideology," and that he despised the series' view of childhood a safe haven before the essentially sexual adulthood that comes after it. Given Pullman's books were so blatantly and openly about "killing God," it's little wonder that those with religious conviction sought to combat their growing popularity.
Harry Potter Was More Controversial Than His Dark Materials
The outrage and banning threat was far less severe for His Dark Materials than it logically should have been. That's because the Harry Potter series eclipsed Pullman's books in popularity -- and thus in controversy. Many religious individuals viewed Harry Potter's use of magic as anti-Christian, if not outright Satanic. Ironically, author J.K. Rowling identified as a Christian, and she never publicly rebuffed the religious right or attempted to stoke the flames of the dissension around her books.
Pullman, on the other hand, did just that by making it plain that his works were antithetical to Christian belief. This ramped up the heat around 2007's The Golden Compass, as the franchise truly stepped into the spotlight. That led to the novel being pulled from several school libraries across the United States, especially those in Southern states. However, this was still fairly tame in comparison to the treatment the boy wizard received, which the Sydney Morning Herald noted left even Pullman confused.
The subsequent HBO series, despite being more successful than the movie, has also been much less controversial -- though it made significant changes from the books. Fortunately or unfortunately, His Dark Materials always seems to come second to Harry Potter. But that doesn't mean that Pullman's franchise didn't experience its fair share of flak.