There is perhaps no genre harder to get right than a fantasy adaptation. Though these fantasy TV shows and movies always come with a built-in audience, this can be more of a curse than a blessing, because if they deviate too far from the source material, present a world too different from the viewer’s vision, or fail to capture core themes, they’re dead in the water.
The silver lining of failed fantasy adaptations, however, is that they show what not to do, which can embolden later creators to return to the well. Rick Riordan’s wildly popular Percy Jackson & the Olympians novel series first got a feature film franchise so disappointing that it was canceled after two movies. However, Disney+ learned from the films’ mistakes and produced a much better-received TV series adaptation, with Percy Jackson & the Olympians season 3 set to premiere on November 20, 2026.
His Dark Materials, a novel series by Philip Pullman, experienced a similar trajectory. In 2007, New Line Cinema released The Golden Compass, the first in a planned feature film series, to paltry reviews, underperforming box office figures, and religious backlash. The franchise was scrapped, but as with Percy Jackson, His Dark Materials became a critically acclaimed TV show.
Premiering in November 2019 on BBC One and HBO, His Dark Materials follows Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen), a young orphan girl living in a parallel world where human souls manifest as animal companions called daemons. As Lyra searches for her missing friend, she uncovers a global kidnapping conspiracy tied to Dust, a supernatural cosmic substance. His Dark Materials is not only one of the most faithful live-action adaptations ever made, butalso the best.
No Live-Action Fantasy Adaptation Beats His Dark Materials
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A common fantasy adaptation trap is putting too much stock in aesthetics. While it’s certainly important for these movies and shows to look good, prioritizing visual spectacle over narrative substance puts them at a disadvantage and almost always leaves fans disappointed.
His Dark Materials is such a successful adaptation not because it had the highest budget, but because it perfectly captured Pullman’s world. The audience doesn’t care about the CGI daemons because of how great they look; it’s Jack Thorne’s phenomenal writing, making them into full-fledged, three-dimensional characters that makes them powerful, providing an emotional gut-punch for the inevitable “intercision” — severing the bond between human and daemon — as the story progresses.
The show isn’t afraid of His Dark Materials‘, well, dark subject matter, and it doesn’t try to water it down to make it more palatable to audiences. Pullman’s trilogy sparked huge controversy for its searing criticism of religion through the allegorical Magisterium. Like its unsettling depiction of the hardships of growing up and leaving childhood comfort behind, the HBO series pulls no punches in its unflinching portrayal of the Magisterium, and it’s all the better for it.
The true mark of an excellent fantasy adaptation is whether it can tell a complete story that honors its source material. Many fantasy shows get canceled before they can accomplish this goal, whereas Game of Thrones was a phenomenal adaptation until it went beyond George R.R. Martin’s incomplete book series; after that, it dwindled in quality, resulting in one of the most poorly received series finales of all time. In contrast, His Dark Materials is a tight three seasons — one season per Pullman novel — with a note-perfect ending.
His Dark Materials Is Way Better Than The Movie Version
His Dark Materials succeeded where The Golden Compass failed for one simple reason: artistic integrity. The Golden Compass was marketed as the next big family-friendly fantasy franchise à la Harry Potter, and in an attempt to reach that mass-market audience, it totally sanitized the religious critique in Pullman’s book. Rather than an explicit church organization, The Golden Compass‘s Magisterium is just an authoritarian government body. This completely removes the story’s emotional throughline, making the movie feel flat and generic.
The ultimate irony is that The Golden Compass still drew backlash, with the Catholic League calling for a boycott. In trying to please everyone, the film alienated religious bodies and Pullman fans alike. Though The Golden Compass grossed over $372 million worldwide, it wasn’t enough against the movie’s $180 million budget, and the franchise folded. Meanwhile, as an HBO show, His Dark Materials wasn’t nearly as concerned about controversy, and by not shying away from it, it became one of the greatest adaptations of all time.
His Dark Materials
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