His Dark Materials is back on our screens for series two, finally bringing The Subtle Knife – the second book of Philip Pullman's trilogy – to the screen.
But in an alternate world, we'd have seen Lyra and Will's adventures in Cittàgazze almost a decade ago in the second movie of a planned trilogy from New Line, following the release of The Golden Compass in 2007.
The Golden Compass might not have been a hit with the critics (42% on Rotten Tomatoes) or the fans of the series due to its changes from the first book, including cutting the dramatic climax involving Lyra, Roger and Lord Asriel.
At the time, writer/director Chris Weitz said they had moved this to the start of the second movie to provide "the most promising conclusion to the first film and the best possible beginning to the second".
The problem was that Weitz never got to make that second movie, so The Golden Compass ends on a now-baffling cliffhanger that doesn't satisfy anyone.
So why did the planned sequel get cancelled?
You might think that just because the first movie was a bit rubbish, it didn't make enough money and that's why The Subtle Knife never happened, but that's not quite the story here.
While The Golden Compass did underperform in the US with only $70.1 million, it performed strongly overseas with $302.1 million. The movie's overall gross of $372.2 million made it the 13th biggest movie of 2007 and could well have led to a sequel, despite its costly budget of $180 million.
Back in January 2007, Hossein Amini had been hired to write the script for The Subtle Knife and later that year, after The Golden Compass's release, the sequel was still a possibility for New Line.
"The jury is still very much out on the movie, and while it's performed very strong overseas we'll look at it early next year and see where we're going with [a sequel]," New Line co-head Michael Lynne told The Wall Street Journal.
With an Oscar for Best Visual Effects under its belt, The Golden Compass still looked set to warrant a sequel as producer Deborah Forte defended its performance in March 2008.
"If the movie really wasn't up to snuff, it wouldn't have done $300 million... This was a success as a family movie in most countries, it's a very strong family franchise, it won an Academy Award. We have to make the second and the third movie," Forte told Variety.
"I will make The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. I believe there are enough people who see what a viable and successful franchise we have."
Despite Forte's best attempts, those movies never transpired. In some ways, it's a miracle that the first movie got made due to behind-the-scenes challenges, including numerous changes of directors and controversy over its anti-religion message.
The Golden Compass toned down the religious aspects of the book, angering fans, but it wasn't enough to stop the movie being called "atheism for kids" by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Sam Elliott – who played Lee Scoresby in the movie – even went as far to blame the Catholic Church for the lack of a sequel, alleging that the criticism "scared New Line off" from continuing the series.
That seems unlikely though given that plenty of long-running series have run into criticism on religious grounds, such as the Twilight and Harry Potter series, and that never stopped them from releasing multiple reasons.
Instead, the reason behind The Subtle Knife's cancellation could well have come down to bad timing, more than anything.
The planned sequels to The Golden Compass were put on indefinite hold in October 2008, following the global financial crisis of 2007-08, AKA the "credit crunch", that affected Hollywood and its upcoming productions.
By that time, New Line had been merged with Warner Bros and having spent $180 million on The Golden Compass, but only grossing $72 million domestically, it's likely that a sequel would have been seen as a financial risk.
It probably didn't help The Subtle Knife that New Line were in early development on The Hobbit trilogy, likely seen as more of a guaranteed box-office winner – which proved to be the case, despite mixed reviews.
But maybe we're overthinking it and it's a simple case that His Dark Materials just doesn't work as a movie as it's too weighty to be condensed into three films.
"I think that what the film lacked that the television series has is time," said His Dark Materials showrunner Jane Tranter.
"I think that actually having that space to adapt the books is part of the thing that made it less daunting, and gave us the courage to do it. You just had to follow the path. And the film could not do that."
His Dark Materials continues next Sunday (November 15) at 8.10pm on BBC One in the UK. Season 2 starts in the US this Monday (November 16), streaming on HBO Max.
![His Dark Materials Season 2 (Includes 4 Art Cards) [DVD] [2020]](https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1607942882-415ghtY9aQL.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=320%3A%2A "His Dark Materials Season 2 (Includes 4 Art Cards) [DVD] [2020]")
![His Dark Materials - Season 1 (Includes 4 Art Cards) [DVD] [2020]](https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1605013803-51p1sIg66kL.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=320%3A%2A "His Dark Materials - Season 1 (Includes 4 Art Cards) [DVD] [2020]")
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