Fans of Phillip Pullman’s fantasy series His Dark Materials have been waiting a long time for a screen adaptation that does the books justice. Hamilton fans, though, have been waiting a long time, too, and they may have one question for The BBC’s eight-part series: when is Lin-Manuel Miranda showing up? The Broadway star has been heavily featured in promotional materials for the show, but the series is three episodes in and he hasn’t arrived. How much longer do mum and dad have to wait to see Alexander Hamilton arrive in Lyra Belacqua’s world of Gyptians, stolen children, and those animal spirits known as daemons?
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In the show, Miranda plays Texan aeronaut and adventurer Lee Scoresby and, if the television series follows the book’s plot arc, Lyra will need him and his airship as she ventures to the north in pursuit of the missing children.
No spoilers, but a few things need to happen before Lyra rolls into Trollesund to meet Scoresby and his hare daemon, Hester. While anything is possible in The BBC’s creative take on Pullman’s parallel universe, based on how things are going in the first few episodes, Lyra may find herself in need of a knowledgeable airman to help her journey to the north come episode 4.
Admittedly this is only a guess, particularly because the BBC’s version has already deviated from the first book by making a big reveal about The Magisterium and Mrs. Coulter and pulling in bits from the second book in the series, The Subtle Knife. However, the only way to know for sure when Lee Scoresby will arrive on set is to bribe someone at the BBC, relentlessly tweet at Miranda (who has been commenting on the show on Twitter), or just wait and watch. The BBC can’t keep Hamilton fans waiting that much longer, right?
Miranda most likely isn’t complaining that his character hasn’t shown up yet. He told the BBC that one of his favourite things about bringing the books to the screen was that they could take their time to tell the story, saying, “I think what is exciting is that with the TV series we have the luxury of time." While he may be patient, fans are not.