With His Dark Materials premiering its third season this December, we recently spoke with James McAvoy about his role as Lord Asriel in the series based on the books by Philip Pullman. The series focuses on Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) who begins her story after children are being kidnapped from London. The alternate London that Lyra has grown up in is governed by a religious body called the Magisterium, one with a far-reaching and authoritative hold on the country. McAvoy plays Lord Asriel, Lyra's estranged father, who seems more focused on waging his war against the Authority – their universe's equivalent of god – than raising his child.
Beyond the different worlds that Lyra and her friend Will (Amir Wilson) explore, and the adventures they go on, the core of the story is about Lyra's growth. While for many children, parents play a large role in that growth, Lyra has estranged relationships with both of her biological parents. A distant one with Lord Asriel and a contentious one with Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson).
When speaking with McAvoy about the upcoming season, one thing was on my mind. Does Asriel even love his daughter? For all that he's done to keep Lyra safe and far away, he's hardly the doting, warm parent you might expect. He even cut her best friend from his daemon for his experiment. McAvoy reveals his stance on Asriel's relationship with his daughter:
Right? I don't know that he does, to be perfectly honest with you. I don't know that he does. I think he will ultimately have to choose whether to be a father or not, but I don't think he knows her. I think he can admire certain aspects of her personality, but I don't think — If he loves her, it's a very distant kind of love to the love that I know, in terms of, if love is not just how you feel, it's what you do, then he doesn't love her actively.
With all this talk of Daemons and the Authority and the Magisterium, McAvoy noted that the exposition and explanation of the world are actually some of his favorite parts of filming:
I think some of my favorite stuff, weirdly, is the exposition. Usually, I hate exposition. Actors are pretty allergic to exposition. But in this show, there's something really joyful about explaining what the hell is going on, and what it actually means, like what is the dæmon and like, how does it actually work? And what is the Authority and like, how is that Authority, not the creator, but it's still a god, but is it their God? Is it The God and all that. Unpacking all that stuff is really interesting.
While Asriel may not love his daughter, according to McAvoy, he does believe in his cause, and that is to wage war on god. If you're familiar with His Dark Materials, you know that a lot of the themes revolve around questioning religion and organized religion specifically. He might be a bad father, but is Asriel a worthy general in this holy war? McAvoy spoke about Asriel's greatest strengths and weaknesses:
His greatest strength being his self-belief is also his greatest weakness. It's his complete belief that he is right, and that his means are justified by the ends that he is aiming for, and the ultimate goal that he is looking to achieve. And that that's right, no matter what he does wrong. That's right, because for the greater good, he can commit no wrong you know, and I think that creates a kind of monster.
It might be hard for audiences to land on whether they support Asriel in his war or not, but while Asriel's actions might be a bit extreme, it's nothing compared to the absolute rule of the Magisterium. Season 3 promises to explore the events of Pullman's third and final book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, and will give us a conclusion to the war against god.
His Dark Materials Season 3 premieres December 5 on HBO.
