One of the greatest tragedies of the 2007 The Golden Compass movie (apart from being, you know, not very good) was that its failure prevented us from ever meeting Will Parry, the protagonist of the second novel of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, The Subtle Knife. In future movies, Will, the story’s co-protagonist, would have come into contact with Lyra, the feisty and fierce girl adventurer. Lyra is being played by Dafne Keen in the upcoming BBC-HBO limited series His Dark Materials, and with that adaptation set to venture beyond the events of the Golden Compass, we finally get to meet the strong-willed boy with a sharp wit and an even sharper weapon. Find out about the newcomer joining the His Dark Materials cast as Will Parry below.

The His Dark Materials Twitter account announced that newcomer Amir Wilson has been cast as Will Parry in the upcoming season of the BBC-HBO limited series, which was renewed for its second season before the first season has even hit the airwaves.

“One day, you’ll follow in your father’s footsteps. You’re going to be a great man too. You’ll take up his mantle."

Introducing @Amirrwilsonn as Will Parry.#HisDarkMaterials pic.twitter.com/6lPg1bssmZ — His Dark Materials (@darkmaterials) June 6, 2019

This will be Wilson’s biggest role to date, apart from an upcoming main role in the upcoming Secret Garden remake. Wilson has previously only appeared in Joe Cornish’s family adventure movie The Kid Who Would Be King as an unnamed character. But his casting is cause for excitement, as the series continues to diversify the story beyond what was described in Pullman’s novels. In The Subtle Knife, Will was simply introduced as a 12-year-old boy with “straight black eyebrows, dark hair with a strong, jutting jaw” — a vague appearance that was illustrated as a brown-haired white boy on the book’s covers. But as a young actor of color, Wilson still fully fits this description.

Will was a protagonist who was dramatically different from Lyra, notably because he was a young boy who hails from our version of Winchester, England. He stumbles upon a window to alternate universe, where he runs into Lyra, who has also wandered there after her adventures in The Golden Compass. The two end up battling all manner of strange creatures and roaming wild children, as he searches for the answers to his father’s mysterious disappearance years ago.

Wilson will likely play a large part in the second season of His Dark Materials, which will ostensibly cover the events of The Subtle Knife. BBC and HBO have not yet announced a third season of His Dark Materials, but Wilson’s Will would become even more prominent as the show heads into the event of the third book, The Amber Spyglass. Either way, it will be exciting to see Wilson act opposite the stellar cast of His Dark Materials which, in addition to Keene, includes James McAvoy, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Ruth Wilson.

His Dark Materials is coming “soon” to HBO.