HBO’s 10/10 Fantasy Masterpiece Has A Missing Episode That Will Never Be Shown

His Dark Materials is an all-time great fantasy show, even though it has a missing episode that will never be shown. The HBO series is based on Philip Pullman's book trilogy of the same name, in which Lyra Belacqua's (Dafne Keen) search for a disappeared friend sets her on a path that will forever change all existing worlds.

The series finale is widely regarded as one of fantasy's best TV endings, as it provides a satisfying, moving conclusion that faithfully adapts Pullman's source material. While it helped cement the show's overwhelmingly positive legacy, there is still the matter of the episode that no one will ever see.

A Standalone Lord Asriel Episode Was Never Filmed Due To The COVID-19 Pandemic

James McAvoy's His Dark Materials character, Lord Asriel Belacqua, was supposed to have a standalone episode in season 2. Executive producer Jane Tranter revealed during Comic-Con@Home (via Deadline) in 2020 that they were unable to film the episode because shooting began as the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown went into effect in the UK.

She went on to explain that the story, which was not from the novels, was written by Jack Throne with approval from Pullman. It would have followed Asriel after he entered a new world at the end of season 1 and shown what happened to him before his return in season 3.

Since filming had been completed on all the other season 2 episodes, and this was a standalone narrative that didn't have much impact on the rest of the season, His Dark Materials' creative team decided to move forward with post-production during lockdown. The season's overall episode count subsequently changed to seven episodes rather than eight. Check out Tranter's comments below:

It was separate from the other seven episodes because it was a standalone episode which Jack had written with the blessing and input of Philip Pullman, which looked at what Lord Asriel had been doing between going through the anomaly at the end of season one and when we see Lord Asriel at the beginning of book three The Amber Spyglass.

It meant that we could continue post-production on the seven episodes that make up The Subtle Knife and just put the Asriel standalone episode to one side and maybe in the future we can revisit it as a standalone. But essentially our adaptation of The Subtle Knife had been completed.

After the season ended, Tranter provided Entertainment Weekly with further details about Asriel's unseen season 2 adventures. It would have been set three days before the start of the season, exploring Asriel's role in Cittàgazze being mostly deserted when Lyra and Will Parry (Amir Wilson) arrive there later, along with what he did next.

At the time, she was already doubtful about making the lost episode a reality, as season 3's adaptation of The Amber Spyglass was the priority, and it would become more challenging to do after so long. This was in 2020, His Dark Materials' ending was released in 2022, and now, years later, it seems highly unlikely that the one-off episode will ever be made.

What we wanted to do was actually explain the story of Cittàgazze, how the town was deserted and Asriel's role in that, and what happened to Asriel and where he goes and why. That missing episode [took place] three days before the start of season 2. So you flash back three days and then you catch up with where season 2 started.

If we were to ever look at that episode again, it would be a complete one-off special. I don't know if, by the time we've done The Amber Spyglass, what the appetite would be for that the further away you move from The Subtle Knife. It's very intwined with all the mythology of that world. It felt like a subtle way of answering all the questions the audience had about Cittàgazze, about spectres, about some of the mythology. So, I don't know.

While the majority of Asriel's story had to be cut from the season, a way was found to include him, as he appears in the finale before an army of angels and enlists their help in the war against the Authority. Thorne explained to Radio Times that in order to logistically make this work, “Executive Producer Dan McCulloch moved mountains to make it happen, and James McAvoy, very brilliantly and generously, came in and gave us a COVID day,” which involved many restrictions at the time. ​​​​

His Dark Materials Is Still A 10/10 Fantasy Show Despite The Missing Episode

For many other shows, a missing episode could have hurt the entire series. This is not the case for His Dark Materials, though, as it still went on to be an unparalleled fantasy story. Since the Asriel episode was never in The Subtle Knife to begin with, its absence did not get in the way of faithfully adapting Pullman's novels.

It also wasn't essential to season 2's narrative in the first place, and the journeys of Lyra, Will, and the other characters remained just as compelling as they would have been otherwise. By at least getting Asriel into the finale, the season still helped set up his major role for season 3, where McAvoy gets plenty of screen time as his character wages war and finally decides what kind of father he will be to Lyra.

As hinted at by Tranter, the standalone episode would have helped answer some questions about His Dark Materials' mythology, but it was not vital to the story's already stellar world-building, character arcs, plot, or themes.

Sources: Deadline, Entertainment Weekly, Radio Times