HBO's His Dark Materials Actually Does Look Super Dark

With Game of Thrones finally ending this week, there's going to be a huge, fantasy-shaped hole in the TV landscape. It's still up in the air if the finale of HBO's massive, darkly-shot cash cow will satisfy its audience, but, regardless, we're going to need something to hold us over until the slough of prequels get here.

Enter His Dark Materials, based on the Philip Pullman young adult series. The target audience for the books was definitely younger than that for George R.R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series, but, still, Pullman's trilogy dealt with some not-usually-child-friendly themes like death, war, and, you know, literally killing God. The 2007 movie The Golden Compass, based on the first book in the series, was a flop despite some great moments like Nicole Kidman slapping a CGI monkey in the face and one super-intelligent polar bear ripping another one's jaw off. Ultimately, it bordered more on cartoony than subversive.

Thankfully, HBO and BBC are remaking the whole thing from scratch, with a series starring Logan's Dafne Keen along with James McAvoy, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the spectacular Ruth Wilson as the story's relentless villain. The first full trailer looks grim and violent enough to capture at least some of the spirit Pullman put in the books.

Unfortunately, there's no release date yet, so we don't know how long we'll have to wait to see if the show actually measures up.

Originally Appeared on GQ