His Dark Materials writer Jack Thorne hints the Golden Monkey will speak in season 3

Writer Jack Thorne stated the development in a tweetalong during the climactic His Dark Materials episode on BBC One on Sunday.

Thorne wrote in answer to a question about whether he'd written dialogue for Boreal's and Mrs Coulter's daemons, "I've tried for The Golden Monkey. But only once. And in the scripts for series 3."

https://twitter.com/darkmaterials/status/1340756671598120970

The Golden Monkey does talk in book three, The Amber Spyglass, and Thorne once again said he wanted to be faithful to Pullman's stories.

Thorne explained: "At the beginning of the process, @janetranter1 and I got to spend some very happy hours with Philip setting out the ground work for what we wanted to do. He always reads everything, he will set us right, and he knows we only want to honour his books."

Mrs Coulter's relationship with her daemon has been the subject of much analysis during season two. She has alternately maltreated, neglected, ignored and separated from the Golden Monkey.

According to Ruth Wilson, the monkey's lack of a voice represented Mrs Coulter, “silencing herself in some way.”

If the Golden Monkey does talk in The Amber Spyglass the character and plot significance will be monumental.

The tweetalong included a number of other insights from Thorne and, just to be certain, he reiterated that the Golden Monkey is not Ozymandias.

"The Golden Monkey is called the Golden Monkey in every single script," he tweeted.

His Dark Materials season three is already in development and could air in 2022.

“We are working on six out of the eight scripts at the moment and have good outlines for seven and eight, and it’s just very, very exciting,” executive producer Jane Tranter said. “I have to say, Amber Spyglass is my favourite out of the three novels.”

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