But the elements that had the team pulling their hair out the most were the angels.
“We all know what angels look like, don’t we?
We’ve seen them in religious iconography.
The angels cometh! ‘His Dark Materials’ season 3 brings the first look at the heavenly creatures.HBO
They’re kind of like us but with wings,” showrunner Jane Tranter tells EW.
Philip Pullman’s angels aren’t based on a Christian religion angel.
The religious aspects he talks about in the book are from his own imagination.
Amir Wilson’s Will Parry observes an angel in ‘His Dark Materials’ season 3.HBO
How do they fly?
How do they move between worlds?
How do they communicate?
James McAvoy returns as Lord Asriel in ‘His Dark Materials’ season 3.HBO
EW can exclusively reveal the first look at the final results of this exhaustive process.
(Lyra’s daemon is Pan, voiced byHeartstopperbreakout Kit Connor.)
The angels are now descending onto the scene at a time when her world has expanded a great deal.
Victoria Hamilton steps in for the late Helen McCrory as the voice of Stelmaria, Asriel’s daemon, in ‘His Dark Materials’ season 3.HBO
Tranter says, “We never moved away from that being the shape of the wings.”
They appeared within balls of light, but their specific forms were intentionally left blurry.
“We weren’t ready to entirely commit to what they were,” Tranter notes of that moment.
In season 3, the angels will now take more physical forms.
“All the makeup was insane,” Keen recalls.
“I remember being on set with Chip Chung and I literally could not look anywhere else.
I couldn’t stop staring at them cause they looked so sick.”
Still, Tranter says they tried all options to see what worked.
She feared what she calls “the Tinkerbell effect.”
“Not that I don’t love Tinkerbell.
I think Tinkerbell’s amazing,” she adds.
“But these are angels, they’re not Tinkerbells.”
She came to a reconciliation.
The angels would take more corporeal forms when they were down on Earth.
“They definitely look different,” Tranter notes.
But they have a uniform, if you like, that is not of our world.
It’s not them in naked angel form."
“There’s a description of them in the books.
“That was just brilliant.
It’s like skyscrapers floating through the sky.
That’s what I always saw of them.”
McAvoy had clear ideas of how to play Asriel.
That came from his love of the source material.
The actor has read the books three times at this point.
He feels he might have come across as “a pain in the ass” to Tranter.
“I think she enjoyed working with me.
Jesus Christ, I hope so,” he jokes.
“I’m the custodian of this character.
That’s my job,” he adds.
“He’s such a dick and he’s such a bad father.
“The destination is more important than the journey for him.
The ends totally justify the means for him.
He’s a leader and a world-changer and a thinker and a doer before he is a father.”
Instead, he brings up Spartacus in the sense that Asriel has a will to make things happen.
His ego grows with it.
And so you see a bit of the manic, fevered ego a bit more.”
“Season 3 is wild.
It was wild to film it and all the set dressing and everything was insane.
