His Dark Materials show boss reveals why Will was introduced so early in major diversion from books
HIS Dark Materials left fans scratching their heads with the inclusion of Will just a few episodes into the series.
The entrance marked a deviation from the timeline of the Phillip Pullman novels, upon which the fantasy drama is based.
Season 1 was expected to track the events of Pullman’s first book, The Northern Lights, but Will doesn’t made his debut until the second instalment The Subtle Knife.
While purists will no doubt take issue with the new chronology, executive producer Jane Tranter explained that the decision was as much logistical as creative.
She pointed out that working around the schedules of child actors was difficult and matters were made all the more complicated by how quickly they aged.
“Child actors’ hours are very limited. If we were only filming with Lyra [Dafne Keen], we’d still be shooting the first season now!” she said at the BBC Writers’ Room Festival.
“We had to put in Will and more adults and pick up the pace of it.”
She also claimed that Will’s inclusion would help pave the way for season 2 and allow viewers to get more invested in the travel between worlds.
“The decision to bring Will forward was something that was in the first conversation that Jack [Thorne, writer] and I had,” she went on.
“How do you take the first novel, which is very Lyra-focused, and then open out for The Subtle Knife and then for The Amber Spyglass, which really opens up?
“If we just keep it all about Lyra then you’re not beginning to develop [other characters] and it would be a shock when you get to season two.”
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Finally, Tranter emphasised that since Will’s early narrative is so separate from the events befalling Lyra, the shake-up has no negative knock-on effects.
“It sounds like it was some complicated thing, but it’s easy if you just follow Phillip Pullman’s timeline,” she concluded.
“Will actually has a timeline that starts earlier than the Subtle Knife. In the end, it just made sense to it.”
His Dark Materials is available to stream on iPlayer.