Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge & Andrew Scott to Reunite in His Dark Materials

San Diego Comic Con may not be the same this year, as the pop culture event is being held completely online, but that doesn’t mean it can’t pull out some exciting and unexpected surprises. One such reveal came during today’s His Dark Materials panel. The HBO/BBC series based on Philip Pullman’s iconic children’s fantasy series will be returning for an already-filmed second season and the cast and creators were on hand to promote the upcoming release (which has yet to get an official date).

Amongst them was Andrew Scott, who will be playing John Parry in the series based on The Subtle Knife, the second book in the trilogy. Scott has been a much-respected actor in fan circles for a long while, probably since his brilliant turn as villain Moriarty on BBC’s Sherlock, but he has more recently found himself in the glow of fan appreciation for his role as The Priest in the second season of the Emmy-winning Fleabag, written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge. In a reveal exclusive to Comic Con at Home, Scott announced that Waller-Bridge will be voicing his daemon in the fantasy series.

“So much of the stuff that’s so beautiful to me about the books and the series is the relationship with the daemons,” said Scott during the panel, “so I do have a relationship with my daemon and I think this is the first time we’re revealing this, but my daemon is going to be played by somebody who is very close to me in real life, which is a young performer and a writer called Phoebe Waller-Bridge.”

Scott continued: “I’m really thrilled about that because it’s all about companionship and friendship and loyalty and that’s what I feel about Phoebe in my real life, so it’s wonderful that that’s happening.”

For those who are unfamiliar with the world of His Dark Materials, a daemon is a physical, external manifestations of a person’s soul or inner self. In the series, they are created using CGI and voiced by some very impressive actors. In the books, John Parry’s daemon is called Sayan Kötör and has the form of an osprey. If everything goes according to plan, Phoebe Waller-Bridge will be playing an osprey.

Speaking more generally about his role in the series, Scott said: “It was really exciting. I mean everybody just went ballistic about the first season so it was a little bit intimidating to come in and you don’t want to mess it up so hopefully the photo [John Parry is seen in a photo in Season 1] will be not as disappointing when it comes to life. But it was really brilliant and, you know, I got to work with incredible actors. A lot of my stuff was with Lin[-Manuel Miranda, who plays Lee Scoresby] and we had such a good time, we really did. It was a total joy to do that. “

More news on His Dark Materials Season 2 as we get it.