Not many people may remember Chris Weitz’s screen adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials children’s book series. The first installation was called The Golden Compass and even had Nicole Kidman in the starring role. Planned sequels to that film were quickly scratched after a mediocre performance in the box office overall. Since then, no one’s dared to touch the iconic series again until 2015, when the BBC announced that it was commissioning a new miniseries that will be based on Pullman’s trilogy–Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. It’s been confirmed recently that famed Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda have signed on to the project as well as The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper. But we’re probably the most excited about Dafne Keen signing on to star in the show.
It’s impossible not to remember Dafne Keen, unless you’ve never seen the last Wolverine installment of Logan, in which Keen had her highly impressive breakout role. In His Dark Materials, Keen will be playing a young orphan named Lyra, who takes on a quest to find her kidnapped friend. She eventually comes across Will, a boy with special traveling skills. Starting off from Victorian era Earth, the two eventually travel across fantasy worlds and parallel universes where witches and armored polar bears exist. They eventually run into Miranda’s character Lee Scoresby, a balloonist and sharp shooter, before they all continue on their journey.
It’s an exciting sophomore film for the young actress, especially since her role in Logan was quite extreme and mature. A step into an action adventure film that’s probably geared towards a more family-friendly audience is at least not too far off. However, Pullman’s trilogy does tackle religious themes, so whether or not that makes a difference for Keen is unclear at this point. It’s also unclear how Hooper will approach the subtleties of the film. That may largely be dependent on how John Thorne, the lauded screenwriter who adapted Wonder, might decide to write this one.
Logan was a true testament not only to Keen’s apparent talent but also to her ability to lead a tent-pole franchise film, even though Wolverine himself was there to anchor it all. That may be enough evidence to say that Keen can do the same for this new role and this type of delivery in a series. She stood out among many of the young actors that have come out in the last couple of years, and there’s quite a few to compare her to considering the release of some recent greats such as the show Stranger Things and the movie It. We have to remember though that Keen moved us all without even speaking much of anything all throughout Logan. She acted that film mostly through her expressions and her movements, and we were definitely all drawn in by her skill and precision. We’re more than excited to see what she can do given a good script and a great story. We’re thinking we might see this happen sooner rather than later as His Dark Materials might be moving into production phase soon.
Follow Us
