Daemons and talking polar bears and a repressive religious regime, oh my! When it comes to vastly underrated fantasy sagas, it doesn’t get much better than HBO’s His Dark Materials. Produced in collaboration with BBC One, the much-anticipated TV series based on Phillip Pullman‘s trilogy of novels is set in a multiverse that includes our own world. His Dark Materials follows young Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) and her daemon Pantalaimon (Kit Connor) as they uncover a conspiracy involving kidnapped children and a mysterious cosmic substance known as Dust, teaming up with Will Parry (Amir Wilson), a boy from another world, to battle the authoritarian Magisterium.

Also starring James McAvoy and Lin-Manuel Miranda, His Dark Materials received critical acclaim for its outstanding cast and breathtaking visuals but, despite its success in the United Kingdom, didn’t become quite as popular as the series deserved to be. Unfortunately, lack of worldwide mainstream appeal typically means that an IP is shelved, but there is still so much more to explore in Pullman’s (and Lyra’s) world, and a sequel might be just what His Dark Materials needs in order to get the flowers it deserves.

Lyra’s Story Doesn’t End With ‘His Dark Materials’

His Dark Materials’ November 2019 premiere was an attempt to capitalize on the sudden fantasy TV series-shaped hole left by the end of Game of Thrones and its controversial final season. But, despite positive reviews, the series struggled to stand out amidst a new host of adaptations also hoping to become the next big fantasy series — think House of the Dragon, The Witcher, and The Wheel of Time. This is perhaps why the series did not plan to continue past Season 3, which is a shame because Pullman wrote no less than five novellas, a short story, and a new (as yet incomplete) trilogy series set in his multiverse following the completion of the His Dark Materials novels.

A ‘His Dark Materials’ Sequel Could Explore More of Lyra’s World

His Dark Materials’ Season 3 storyline was accused of feeling rushed and was notably criticized for overshadowing the tragedy of Lyra and Will’s relationship arc for the sake of advancing the plot, but Pullman’s latter stories offer an opportunity to slow down and simplify, focusing on singular characters and their motivations. A sequel series based on Pullman’s expanded world could tie up loose ends with Lyra’s Oxford and Serpentine, which explore Lyra and Pantalaimon’s new normal, and how the events of His Dark Materials affected them.

The novellas also provide backstories for fan-favorite characters like Lee Scoresby (Lin-Manuel Miranda) in Once Upon a Time in the North, and Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson) in The Collectors. The first two books of Pullman’s second trilogy, The Book of Dust and The Secret Commonwealth, shed more light on both the mysteries of the Magisterium and Dust and elaborate on Lyra’s story before and beyond His Dark Materials, which could amend the series’ issue with incomplete-feeling character arcs.

Unfortunately, with only three seasons, His Dark Materials may not have been given enough time to dig into Pullman’s intricate novels and develop a larger fanbase. Even Game of Thrones, now considered the gold standard of epic fantasy, took three full seasons to build up its viewership and only exploded into the zeitgeist after the infamous Red Wedding episode at the end of Season 3. Critics and audiences both agreed that HBO’s adaptation expertly captured the tone of Pullman’s books, and the series still maintained a fairly high viewership — averaging three to four million viewers per episode — over its three seasons despite its apparent lack of mainstream success, meaning His Dark Materials has more than enough enthusiasm (and material) for a much-deserved sequel series.

His Dark Materials is available to stream on Max in the U.S.