‘Lord of the Rings’ on Amazon Nabs Will Poulter as Lead
Amazon’s big-budget series “Lord of the Rings” has cast Will Poulter in the lead. The “Bandersnatch” actor’s exact role has not been detailed to the press.
Poulter will join Australian actress Markella Kavenagh in the series, whose casting was reported in July. The streaming platform, however, has declined to comment about these stars inclusion in the series but speculations are that Poulter and Kavenagh will be playing Beldor and Tyra, per Deadline.
The series, inspired by the stories of esteemed author J.R.R. Tolkien, will explore a new storyline about Middle Earth with writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay. Juan Antonio Bayona has also been hired to direct the series while “Game of Thrones” scribe Bryan Cogman has been hired as consulting producer.
Specifically, the “Lord of the Rings” series will be about the time Sauron hatches the plan to invade and trigger the war during the Second Age. This scene was depicted in the first few minutes of the first part of the award-winning trilogy in 2001, “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.”
Set for a 2021 release, “Lord of the Rings” will have about 20 episodes for the first season. Amazon has a plan to carry the show for at least five seasons with filming taking place mainly in New Zealand, among several other locations.
“The exact locations are of course uncertain and it could well be several,” Tom Shippey a scholar of Tolkien’s work said. “The shooting itself does not take place chronologically, but is oriented towards the locations,” he added. “Logically, you try to bundle all the scenes that take place in one location and film them so that you have it done and don’t have to return to that place several times. But this also implies that everything has to be clear at the start of filming, you have to know the end. There’s supposed to be 20 episodes for the first season. So until they’ve decided what the end is going to be, they can’t start filming.”
The Tolkien estate has given Amazon the free hand in developing the show except for the main shape of the Second Age, as delved in the books.
“The Tolkien Estate will insist that the main shape of the Second Age is not altered. Sauron invades Eriador, is forced back by a Númenorean expedition, returns to Númenor. There he corrupts the Númenoreans and seduces them to break the ban of the Valar. All this, the course of history, must remain the same.”
