How His Dark Materials Season 3 Will Differ From The Books

According to a recent tweet from HBO, Season 3 of "His Dark Materials" is expected to return on December 5, 2022. Based on the book trilogy of the same name, "His Dark Materials" focuses on the adventures of Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) as she tries to uncover the mysteries of a magical property called Dust. The first two seasons adhered fairly close to the books, which is a far cry from the 2007 film "The Golden Compass." The movie received a middling 43% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics noting that it failed to embrace the controversial elements of its source material.

Season 3 of "His Dark Materials" will adapt the final book in the original trilogy, "The Amber Spyglass." Arguably the most complex and dark entry in the series, the show will have its work cut out in faithfully bringing the book to the screen and tying up the storyline. Given its accuracy thus far, however, fans will likely expect more of the same in Season 3. However, the final season of "His Dark Materials" will actually differ from the books in a big way.

During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, "His Dark Materials" stars James McAvoy and Amir Wilson teased the events to come in the show's third and final season. Among the snippets of information provided, McAvoy offered an intriguing detail about the ways in which the show will differ from the books, and it comes down to how his character Asriel Belacqua and Marisa Coulter (Ruth Wilson) will factor into the story.

"We had to make good on all the promises of Season 1 and Season 2 and show the stuff that Coulter and Asriel do," McAvoy said. "In the books, you don't really see it. You're told about it a little bit or in hindsight 'hey, there are other things happening over there in the Republic of Heaven with Asriel,' and we had to show a lot more of it."

McAvoy admitted that this aspect of the show was challenging because expanding on that particular part meant altering the book, and they wanted to stay true to author Philip Pullman's vision. As far as narrative decisions go for adaptations, this is one that absolutely makes sense. The books mostly centered around Lyra and Will Parry (Wilson) and their perspective of events, but the show has already included many different perspectives throughout its run. Giving more context to the events in the final book is just an evolution of that. Still, book fans can be hard to please, so it'll be interesting to see how they respond to these changes when the show airs.