Sophie Okonedo, Chipo Chung and Xaphania
In season two (filming of which mostly squeaked inside the line before the first UK lockdown in March 2020), fans were introduced to new character Xaphania, voiced by Sophie Okonedo. The leader of the rebel angels who joined forces with Lord Asriel to destroy the controlling, misogynistic Authority, Xaphania is a key character in season three’s war. Okonedo’s unmistakable voice was heard in four episodes (‘The City of Magpies’, ‘Tower of the Angels’, ‘The Scholar’ and ‘Aesahættr’), speaking to Mary Malone via her Oxford lab computer, narrating the Lord of the Rings-style ep 4 prologue about the forging of the Subtle Knife, and standing with Lord Asriel in the finale. As widely reported in 2020, James McAvoy’s character Lord Asriel was intended to have starred in a standalone season two episode showing his journey from opening his first ‘window’ to another world to gathering troops to join him in the battle against the Authority. Those plans were discarded due to Covid-19 restrictions, and the scenes written for the end of that episode were used in the season two finale. The eight episodes of His Dark Materials season three will air in double-bill slots this December on BBC One and HBO. The story will see Asriel and his allies prepare to do battle with the Authority, while Will and Lyra attempt to evade the Magisterium’s fierce agents and fulfil their roles in the future of… everything. It promises to be a spectacular conclusion to this imaginative story. His Dark Materials Season 3 will air in double-bill episodes starting on HBO on Monday the 5th of December in the US, and at a tbc time and date on BBC One in the UK.
