What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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T2 WHATS UP! November 3 - 9, 2019 BY KYLA BREWER TV Media F or eight seasons, HBO ruled the airwaves with fire-breathing dragons, wicked royals and re- bellious wildlings in "Game of Thrones," and now the cable giant is bringing viewers an- other epic tale inspired by a series of fantasy novels. Dafne Keen ("Logan," 2017) stars as Lyra Belacqua, an or- phan from an alternate parallel universe who sets out to find her kidnapped friend in "His Dark Materials," premiering Monday, Nov. 4, on HBO. Her adventure leads her to uncover a nefarious plot involving sto- len children and a mysterious substance known as Dust. Based on the book series of the same name by Philip Pull- man, the HBO-BBC co-pro- duction was a long time in the making. The success of the first book in the series spawned the 2007 feature film "The Golden Compass," but plans for big-screen sequels were scrapped due to the film's negative reception. Reli- gious groups were critical of the source material's anti-reli- gion themes, while fans of the books claimed the film actual- ly omitted integral parts of the story that were critical of reli- gion. In 2015, BBC One an- nounced a television adapta- tion of the series, but it wasn't until 2018 that HBO signed on as co-producer and interna- tional distributor. The first season hasn't even premiered yet, but the cast and crew have already started filming Season 2, a necessary move considering the age of the show's young star. Season 1 of "His Dark Materials" chron- icles the events of the first book in the series "The Golden Compass" (known as "North- ern Lights" in the U.K.), while Season 2 picks up with the events of the second book "The Subtle Knife," which con- tinues just hours after the final chapter of Book 1. In a Septem- ber interview with EW.com, executive producer Jane Tranter ("Succession") ex- plained why working with young actors meant they couldn't stop filming for long. Dafne Keen stars in "His Dark Materials" HBO's new fantasy continued on page T10 TV FEATURE