Historical, Social and Cultural Contexts GapFill

While the BBC and HBO co-production of His Dark Materials was announced in 2015, the original  screenplayscomic booksgraphic noveltrilogy of novels that make up the source material were written by Philip Pullman in the late 1990s and early 2000s. If Pullman's original texts were adapted for the screen at the time of release, it's highly unlikely they would have been successful – but in the decades since, there have been a variety of social, cultural and technological shifts that have changed this.  

Some very important contextual factors to the story of the series itself come from Pullman's own personal beliefs and attitudes, particularly towards  occultistscultsorganised religionsconspiracy theorists. Pullman grew up in the UK not long after the Second World War, when  HinduismChristianityIslamJudaism was more prevalent and the Church of England had more power in society than it does today. Famously – and occasionally controversially – Pullman is an outspoken  agnosticpolytheistatheistprophet, and his views influence his writing. Religious concepts and imagery play a large part in the world of His Dark Materials, including the title itself, which is derived from the seventeenth-century poem  The RavenThe Divine ComedyParadise LostThe Canterbury Tales, and the idea of 'Dust' being a manifestation of  sinfaithevilgoodness. 

When the books were first released, fantasy films and television did not have a proven record of success, with early  computer-generatedpracticaltechnicalstop-motion visual effects often failing to live up to the imagery conjured up by the written word. However, with the release of film series such as   The Dark Knight TrilogyThe TerminatorThe Lord of the RingsAlien and Harry Potter, it was clear that there was a huge audience for the genre and technology was finally becoming  funsophisticatedinterestingcheap enough for film-makers to bring fantasy to the screen. In later years, HBO poured millions of dollars into producing a television adaptation of Game of Thrones, an adaptation of George R R Martin's novel series, which was highly successful upon release in  2004200120202011.

Unfortunately, the reputation of big-budget fantasy TV series would take a big hit just before the release of His Dark Materials in late 2019, and this would come in the form of Game of Thrones final season. Controversial script choices, a low episode count and mistakes such as leaving Starbucks cups in frame, resulted in the eighth series being critically panned and resulting in lower   levels of interestviewing figuresexpectationsaward nominations. As well as this highly publicised disaster for HBO, His Dark Materials was also set back by the   general electionsupply chain shortagepetrol crisiscoronavirus pandemic which delayed almost every single TV and film production in 2020 and 2021, affecting the filming of some episodes in the second series.