Watch the first teaser for the BBC’s His Dark Materials series

The BBC has released the first look at its series based on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy of novels.

The 30-second spot gives us a glimpse of James McAvoy as Lord Asriel, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby, Clarke Peters as Dr. Carne and Ruth Wilson as Mrs. Coulter.

The series takes place in a world where people are accompanied by manifestations of their souls – these take the form of shapeshifting animals called daemons. It also features an elementary particle called Dust that gives humans consciousness, something the church frowns upon.

The books were a huge worldwide hit, winning awards including the Carnegie Medal and Whitbread Book of the Year. But their success hasn’t translated well to other media; New Line Cinema released a film version of the first book in 2007, but never followed through with the other two. Hopefully this series can tell the full story for fans of the screen.