Luther star Ruth Wilson is the latest addition to the cast of His Dark Materials, as filming on the big-budget TV adaptation of Philip Pullman‘s novels gets underway in Cardiff, Wales.
Deadline reports that Ruth will play Mrs. Coulter, the glamorous and mysterious socialite played by Nicole Kidman in the 2007 movie version, who enters the young heroine Lyra’s life as she embarks on a journey to the Arctic from her home in Oxford, England.
She’ll be joining James McAvoy and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who we already knew would be playing Lord Asriel and balloonist Lee Scoresby respectively, as well as Logan‘s young breakout star Dafne Keen, who plays Lyra.
The rumors are true.
I'm headed back tofor a couple of months.
Via hot air balloon.
With my daemon Hester in tow…— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) July 27, 2018
for a couple of months.Other confirmed cast members include The Wire‘s Clarke Peters, who’ll play Lyra’s guardian the Master, Game of Thrones‘ Ian Gelder, who stars as librarian and scholar Charles, and On Chesil Beach‘s Anne-Marie Duff, who’ll play Ma Costa.
The whole thing is shaping up to be an epic adaptation of Philip Pullman’s popular trilogy of children’s books, with the first eight-part season telling the story of first book Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass as it was known in the U.S.), and The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass to follow.
The behind-the-scenes talent has us excited, too. It will be directed by Academy Award-winner Tom Hooper, who helmed The King’s Speech, and adapted by the Bafta-winning Harry Potter and the Cursed Child writer Jack Thorne.
His Dark Materials is due to air on the BBC in the U.K. next year.
Can you imagine Ruth as Mrs. Coulter?