The Lord of the Rings TV series, Amazon’s ambitious* journey back to Middle-earth, has secured its lead villain in the form of Game of Thrones’ Joseph Mawle (pictured).
GoT super fans will of course immediately recognize Mawle as the long-missing Benjen Stark, while Tolkien obsessives can speculate as to who the character of Oren is exactly. With the action being set during the Second Age of Middle-earth (ie a long time ago, far, far away from the action seen in even The Hobbit), producers John D. Payne and Patrick McKay (Star Trek Beyond), Bryan Cogman (another GoT alum), and Bruce Richmond (From the Earth to the Moon) have wisely granted themselves a narrative blank canvas on which to reintroduce audiences to the myriad oddities that populate Tolkien’s unique world.
Joining Mawle is Will Poulter, most recently seen in genre faves Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Midsommer, who will play one of the two heroes, Beldor, and Picnic at Hanging Rock’s Markella Kavenagh as Tyra. Expect a wealth of casting news to hit soon, as production begins to ramp up for a 2020 shoot.
Expect Amazon to debut Season 1 of The Lord of the Rings sometime in 2021.
* At a cost of 4 billion for the rights and a further billion in production costs, you better believe this is ambitious!