In some recent coverage we finally have the Mulefa revealed for His Dark Materials Season 3. If you’ve never read the books, you may wonder what the fuss is? However if you have read His Dark Materials final book, The Amber Spyglass then like the rest of the books fans you’ve likely wondered how the hell anybody could make the Mulefa work on screen? I won’t spoil too much about the species here for show watchers, but you can get a look at the first image of a Mulefa from the show below.
Get to know the Mulefa in this sneak peek from @EW.
Season 3 of #HisDarkMaterials premieres December 5 on @HBOMax. pic.twitter.com/2ioyJkEgvW
— His Dark Materials (@daemonsanddust) November 7, 2022
Here is the same shot from actress Simone Kirby who will the be the character who spends the most time with the Mulefa in Season 3 of the show.
There she is. 💚#HisDarkMaterials #Mulefa #Atal pic.twitter.com/NAsPlEyCoK
— Simone Kirby (@Simone1Kirby) November 7, 2022
As you can see the images here are exclusive to EW so we cannot share them in full format. Those social media messages though are also from official sources. In EW‘s article they talk a little more about how tricky it is to bring these characters to life. It is after all one thing to imagine scenes in your head, but to make them work on TV is a different skill.
“We’d talked about it a lot because it was what we were frightened of,” Tranter says. “We would address the mulefa in the room, if you like, constantly.”
Luckily they had author Phillip Pullman to consult on what they could change for the visual medium, and what could not be changed.
“Philip Pullman is so generous with us, both in terms of what we actually physically just can’t do and also what we need to do in order to help contextualize for an audience what’s going on,” Tranter says. “His narrating voice would supply that information, and we have to dramatize it in some way. But every now and again, he’s clear about what a red line is.”
The red line with the mulefa was that they have to travel on seedpods. “I thought, ‘Is that gonna look a bit rubbish [on screen]?’ And he was like, ‘Yes, they do!'” Tranter recalls.
“It is like a paradise world where the environment, the landscape, and the beings who live in it all live in perfect harmony,” she continues. “So there are tracks, for example, all the way through the world of the Mulefa, and those tracks are there because the Mulefa have made them riding along in their seedpods, but they exist for each other.”
RELATED: His Dark Materials Season 3 Trailer Is Here And It Looks Great
Honestly, I wouldn’t know where to start to even explain what the Mulefa are? Or, how important they are to the overarching plot, which they really are? His Dark Materials is one of those trilogies where the third and final part goes off in some crazy tangents. And yet, those seeds have already been sown in previous seasons/books.
There are some moments in Season 3 as a book fan I’ve been looking forward. One, is a journey to a place I won’t name to avoid spoilers. Another was definitely seeing the Mulefa realized on screen. As of now, I can say they look good to me in stills. However, it remains to be seen in live-action. There is far more to the Mulefa than just how they look. For example, they have their own language as well.
“We knew that the mulefa needed to be immediately beautiful and immediately appealing and immediately not scary,” Tranter notes. “They’re strange for sure. Mary hasn’t seen anything like them and the landscape in which they live with these massive, massive, massive trees the size of skyscrapers.”
At this point, Kirby is now fluent in Mulefa, Tranter says: “She can put it on her resume.”
I’m really looking forward to His Dark Materials Season 3. I will be reviewing each episode as I have done for both Season 1 and Season 2. What do you think about the Mulefa revealed for His Dark Materials Season 3. If you ahve any strng opinions either way, leave them below.
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