Netflix offers first look at new fantasy series The Letter for the King starring His Dark Materials actor

NETFLIX has released a first look at their new young adult fantasy series The Letter for the King, starring His Dark Materials star Amir Wilson and Andy Serkis’ daughter, Ruby Serkis.

The new TV adventure drama will follow the story of a young knight in training who is tasked with an epic journey to deliver a secret letter to the king after the ruthless prince threatens to cast darkness over the world.

However, all is not as it seems, and the young knight, Tiuri (played by Wilson), discovers he is at the centre of a prophecy foretelling the rise of a hero who will become a true leader.

Newcomers Gjis Bloom and Thaddea Graham will also star in the six-episode series alongside Wilson and Serkis, which filmed across nine months in New Zealand and Prague.

Wilson, 15, will be most known to TV fans as Will Parry in the BBC One series His Dark Materials; he will also appear in The Secret Garden later in 2020 with Colin Firth.

Will’s appearance in season one of the BBC adaptation shocked fans, as the first episodes were expected to track the events of Pullman’s first book, The Northern Lights.

However, Will doesn’t made his debut until the second instalment The Subtle Knife and 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.”