Who Is John Parry in 'His Dark Materials'? Why Fans Are Freaking Out Over His Introduction

[Warning: Spoilers ahead]

The HBO show His Dark Materials, based on Philip Pullman’s book trilogy, follows the story of Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) as she searches for her missing friend Roger (Lewin Lloyd). Along the way she discovers a secret organization known as The General Oblation Board, or Gobblers, who kidnap children to experiment on separating the kids from their daemons to uncover more information about Dust. The evil organization is run by The Magisterium who rules over the people of this alternate world where Lyra lives.  

In the series premiere, Lyra’s uncle (who fans also now know is her father) Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) presents the scholars of Jordan College with the frozen head of explorer Stanislaus Grumman. Fans of the book series know that Stanislaus goes by another name, John Parry (Andrew Scott). So, who is John in His Dark Materials? 

To recap, viewers watched as Lord Boreal (Ariyon Bakare), who works for The Magisterium as an agent of the Consistorial Court of Discipline, attended Mrs. Coulter’s apartment party. According to Entertainment Weekly, this character will play more of a role in the Season 1 series, as opposed to developing his storyline later on like Pullman did in Book 2. 

“It’s clear he’s been crossing through worlds for years, and we were fascinated by the fact that Philip gave us a glimpse of him in Book 1 and then went on to really develop him as a character in Book 2,” executive producer Jane Tranter told the outlet. “We thought, if he’s going to be this big of a character in Season 2 [which pulls from The Subtle Knife], let’s use him in Season 1.” 

In the show, viewers learn that the agent is investigating the beheading of Stanislaus and finds out that Asriel had been lying about the scholar’s death. Boreal crosses into our present-day world, meeting with one of his contacts under the guise of Charles Latrom, a name which he has been using in this world.  

Though fans will probably not get to meet Stanislaus aka John in-person until Season 2, we did get to see a photograph of the important character. Andrew Scott has been cast to play John in Season 2 of His Dark Materials. So far in the series, John’s storyline has started to develop. In Episode 3, Boreal finds out that John is from our world and is a soldier who has been traveling between the two realms. 

We also learned that John has a son, Will Parry (Amir Wilson), who will become a key character in the series’ storyline.  

Following the revelation of John/Stanislaus' identity in the series, fans were quick to react to the introduction. "I think it's a bit of a shame to reveal the twist about Will & Grumman/John Parry's connection so early. I know things need to change for TV/film but I think that twist would have played out just fine as it was," tweeted one fan.

Another fan posted: "Did anyone else have a little moment of excitement when they showed the picture of John Parry?! I did not know Andrew Scott was going to be in this! Season 2 probably but I am very excited!!" Well, we certainly are too!

Catch new episodes of His Dark Materials on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on HBO.