Lord Asriel makes an action-packed return in the third and final season (Picture: Bad Wolf/BBC/HBO)
His Dark Materials star James McAvoy has opened up about the episode centred on his character Lord Asriel that was supposed to appear in season 2, saying he was ‘really sad’ it was cut… while adding he’d be open to playing the role once more.
This week, the third and final season of the TV series is set to premiere on BBC One, revealing the emotional end to the journey Lyra (Dafne Keen) and Will (Amir Wilson) embarked on when they crossed paths from different worlds.
James, 43, plays Lyra’s father, the elusive and commanding Lord Asriel, who in the new episodes is rallying an army together to fight the Authority, the first angel who went on to declare himself a deity.
While speaking to Metro.co.uk and other media, the X-Men actor addressed his axed standalone episode, which would have filled in the gaps between the end of season one – when Asriel went through a portal into another world – and the tease at the end of season two – when he was shown imploring the Angels to join his fight against the Authority.
‘I mean, we never shot it, unfortunately. We got halfway through the first day,’ he said, before revealing that Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt was apparently supposed to join him in the story.
‘Me and Jo Froggatt – I don’t know if anybody knows, but Jo Froggatt was in it – and me and her were running around.’
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Expressing his sadness over the episode never seeing the light of day, he added: ‘Really, really sad. I was really excited about it. I felt like the script had gotten to a really good place.’
Referencing His Dark Materials TV writer Jack Thorne, he continued: ‘Jack was getting it to an even better place, he didn’t stop working on it. We were all working on it together and it was getting better and better and better all the time.’
As for whether he believes the episode could ever still be released in some capacity, James admitted he has his doubts over the feasibility due to finances – but would be up for it if it ever became a possibility.
Stelmaria, Lord Asriel’s daemon, was voiced by the late Helen McCrory before her death, with the role being taken over by Victoria Hamilton in the third season (Picture: Bad Wolf/BBC/HBO)
Will and Lyra forge an even stronger connection in the new episodes (Picture: Bad Wolf/BBC/HBO)
‘I think it would have been great. I’m really sad it never happened. Do I think you could do a standalone episode? I don’t know – it’s a lot of money to do Stelmaria [Asriel’s daemon] and Spectres and all that for one episode and HBO, or Bad Wolf or BBC would have to really, really want to do it.
‘But I’d be up for it. I love playing Asriel and I would happily put on his knitwear.’
In July 2020, a few months before season two was released, executive producer Jane Tranter confirmed that the Lord Asriel standalone episode had been cut due to coronavirus filming restrictions.
While speaking on a Comic-Con panel, she said at the time: ‘It meant that we could continue post-production on the seven episodes that make up The Subtle Knife and just put the Asriel standalone episode to one side and maybe in the future we can revisit it as a standalone.’
Lyra’s mother, Marisa Coulter, is played by Ruth Wilson (Picture: Bad Wolf/BBC/HBO)
However, in November that year, writer Jack told Metro.co.uk that he didn’t think it would be ‘quite right’ for the episode to come out, having been written ‘with the full cooperation of Philip Pullman’, the author of the His Dark Materials book series.
‘It was the hardest thing I’ve had to write for His Dark Materials by quite some distance, and we got four hours in and then it was like, shutters. Which was really upsetting but we were so much luckier than most, so we can’t complain,’ he said.
His Dark Materials VFX supervisor Russell Dodgson shed further light on what the episode would have included during a conversation with Metro.co.uk, saying it would have had ‘more Spectre stuff’ in it, referring to the malevolent, soul-consuming creatures introduced in season two.
He added: ‘We had more Spectre stuff in there, and it had more about the history of Cittàgazze in it, you got to see a bit more.’
His Dark Materials season 3 premieres on Sunday at 7pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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‘I felt like the script had gotten to a really good place,’ the actor said.
