His Dark Materials star Amir Wilson opens up about fandom pressure

"You really want to do the fans justice."

By Katie Francis and David Opie

4 Dec 2022

amir wilson as will parry in his dark materials season 2

Bad Wolf/Simon RidgwayBBC

His Dark Materials will soon be back with its third and final season.

According to all sources, this will likely be the most intense season yet, and is based on the third book (The Amber Spyglass) of Philip Pullman's trilogy.

Amir Wilson, who plays the brave and principled Will Parry in the series, has spoken exclusively to Digital Spy about dealing with the responsibility of bringing such a beloved character and world to life for a global fanbase.

When asked whether he feels pressure to get the ending right given how much people love the books, Amir said: "Yeah. There always is that pressure.

"When you're playing a character that's already been portrayed in some form or another, whether it's a book or a film – obviously Will's never been portrayed as a character on screen before, but he has in a book.

"And it’s always hard when doing things that have such a big fanbase, because you really want to do the fans justice, as to what they had envisioned. But you can only just turn up to set, do your best, and just hope that people like it."

Summarising how it feels to bring Will from page to screen, he shared: "It is always a bit hard. It's a lot more judgement from people when it's a character that's been portrayed before, and people have such a strong attachment to it."

BBC

However, while the pressure is high, fans have been overjoyed by the BBC adaptation of the books, and by Amir's character. Now, closing up the story, it seems all hands are on deck to make sure the show ends as well as it started.

Amir has previously teased: "It's definitely more emotional. I think it was definitely harder to film. There's a lot more going on, I think the introduction of a lot more characters as well. It's a lot to look forward to."

Let's hope that Lyra and Will can reunite to bring peace back across the worlds.

His Dark Materials airs on BBC One in the UK on December 18, and HBO in the US.