The BBC has doubled the order for His Dark Materials, an adaptation of Philip Pullman's trilogy (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass), ahead of its debut. Deadline reported that the Bad Wolf and New Line production "has already been handed a second, eight-part season. Filming kicked off earlier this month in Cardiff at Wolf Studios Wales for season one of the drama, which is thought to be one of the most expensive British scripted series to date."
Written by Jack Thorne, and His Dark Materials stars James McAvoy, Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Clarke Peters, Ariyon Bakare, Georgina Campbell, Anne-Marie Duff, Ian Gelder and Will Keen. Tom Hooper will be lead director and helm the first two episodes, with Dawn Shadforth directing an episode and Otto Bathurst directing two.
Endeavor Content co-reps North American rights with BBC Studios Distribution.