Update: Per Deadline's newest exclusive, The Affair's Ruth Wilson has been cast as Marisa Coulter in BBC's His Dark Materials adaptation.
X-Men's James McAvoy and The Wire's Clarke Peters have been cast in starring roles in BBC's His Dark Materials adaptation. The eight-part series will begin production later this month. The King's Speech's Tom Hooper will direct the series that also stars Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby and Dafne Keen as Lyra. BBC Worldwide has yet to secure an international distributor but streaming services Apple & Netflix are amongst the suitors for U.S. and global series rights to one of the most expensive British dramas per Deadline.
His Dark Materials is based upon Philip Pullman fantasy trilogy, Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, a complex tale of physics, phiosophy and theology featuring witches and armored polar bears. It tells the story of two children, Lyra and Will, who wander through a series of parallel universes.