Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV series has announced its first cast regular member– Australian Markella Kavenagh. Writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay created the series, with J.A. (Juan Antonio) Bayona set to direct the first two episodes. The series will take place sometime before the popular book trilogy.
Kavenagh recently appeared in the BBC miniseries ‘The Cry’, and before that in ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ and ‘Romper Stomper’. Kavenagh will play a character named Tyra, but that is all that is known about her character.
The top-secret writer’s room reportedly includes ‘Breaking Bad’s Gennifer Hutchison and ‘Game of Thrones” Bryan Cogman.
RELATED: ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Lands J.A. Bayona To Direct The First Two Episodes
‘Lord of the Rings’ is the result of a nine-figure deal between Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (producers of the Peter Jackson movies). Amazon has high hopes that this will become the next ‘Game of Thrones’ and has already ordered multiple seasons.
Lauren Hissrich who is serving as showrunner on another upcoming fantasy show– which is also hoped might be the next ‘Game of Thrones’– ‘The Witcher’ for Netflix, recently talked about the impact of ‘Game of Thrones’ and living up to its standard. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Hissrich said:
“People say to me all the time: ‘Do you think this show could be the next Game of Thrones?’ I’m a huge Game of Thrones fan. I don’t think people need ‘the next Game of Thrones.’ I think when people ask that they mean, ‘Can this show be as successful or renowned as Thrones’? God, I hope so. What Game of Thrones did is it showed the world that fantasy wasn’t just for a niche audience and fantasy could be acceptable for everyone and that these are stories of humans interacting with each other in a heightened world. I think Game of Thrones paved the way and I’m really grateful for that show.”
That’s surely a sentiment shared by Amazon and everyone involved in this massive ‘Lord of the Rings’ undertaking.
Source: Variety
