Following Will Poulter’s departure from the Lord of the Rings series, Deadline reports that Game of Thrones alum Robert Aramayo has been tapped for the lead role of Beldor in Amazon Prime Video’s highly-anticipated fantasy series adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic novels. Poulter’s sudden exit from the drama was reportedly due to scheduling conflicts.
Aramayo is no stranger to the fantasy genre as he is best known for playing the role of a young Ned Stark in the sixth and seventh seasons of HBO’s Game of Thrones. He will next be seen in Lionsgate’s new horror film Antebellum and 20th Century Fox’s The King’s Man.
RELATED: Amazon Orders Lord of the Rings Season 2 Early
Details are being kept under wraps for most of the cast on the series, but it is set to star Joseph Mawle (Game of Thrones), Maxim Baldry (Years and Years), Markella Kavenagh, Ema Horvath and Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud), who will portray the role of a young Galadriel which the first confirmed major character that will be featured in the series.
Set in Middle-earth, the television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. Further details about the series’ plot are still being kept under wraps. Production is set to begin in 2020 and will be filming in New Zealand, the same location as the film franchise.
Buy the Lord of the Rings films here.
The highly-anticipated Lord of the Rings series will be set in the Second Age. That places approximately 3,000 years of history between the series and the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. Casual fans may not realize it, but Jackson’s Fellowship of the Rings actually depicted the end of the Second Age, when the last alliance of elves and men confronted Sauron’s forces. The Second Age covered nearly 3,441 years, and it began after the banishment of Morgoth, the dark lord before Sauron. There’s a lot of story potential in that time, including the rise of Sauron, the creation of the One Ring, and the emergence of the Ringwraiths.
RELATED: Phoebe Waller-Bridge Signs First Look Deal with Amazon
Juan Antonio (J.A.) Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Orphanage, The Impossible) will direct the first two episodes of Amazon Studios’ The Lord of the Rings TV series and also executive produce alongside his producing partner Belén Atienza. JD Payne and Patrick McKay are showrunning and executive producing the series alongside Lindsey Weber (10 Cloverfield Lane), Bruce Richmond (Game of Thrones), Gene Kelly (Boardwalk Empire), Sharon Tal Yguado, Gennifer Hutchison (Breaking Bad), Jason Cahill (The Sopranos), and Justin Doble (Stranger Things).
The Lord of the Rings series is produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema. It is expected to debut in 2021.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.