According to Collider, English actor Maxim Baldry has been tapped for a key role in Amazon’s forthcoming and highly-anticipated Lord of the Rings series. He will be joining previously announced cast members Will Poulter (Midsommar, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) and Australian actress Markella Kavenagh.
Baldry might be a familiar face to some people from the 2007 comedy Mr. Bean’s Holiday starring alongside Rowan Atkinson. He recently appeared in HBO’s Emma Thompson-led drama series Years and Years.
RELATED: Phoebe Waller-Bridge Signs First Look Deal with Amazon
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’ characters and 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: Rumor: Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings To Have 20-Episode First Season
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.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
