Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series has added a new member to its fellowship– Will Poulter. He joins Markella Kavenagh, who was the first actor cast. No details about their roles have been released, but Kavenagh is a series regular, and Poulter is reported to be one of the show’s leads.
Poulter was recently seen in Ari Aster’s acclaimed low-budget horror movie ‘Midsommar’, which is now playing in theaters in an extended director’s cut form. He was also seen as Colin Ritman in Netflix’s ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’, Gally in the ‘Maze Runner’ franchise, and Bridger in ‘The Revenant’. He was originally cast to play Pennywise in the ‘It’ movies, but he dropped out after development stalled, and before director Andy Muchietti signed on.
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The ‘Lord of the Rings’ series is based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and is set during Middle Earth’s Second Age, before the famous novels. The series was developed by writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay. J.A. (Juan Antonio) Bayona will direct the first two episodes. Lauren Hissrich is acting as showrunner. Payne and McKay are not the only writers working on this series, but the identities of the others is also a strict secret. ‘Breaking Bad’s Gennifer Hutchison and ‘Game of Thrones” Bryan Cogman are RUMORED to be among them, and Hutchinson is listed as an executive producer, along with Jason Cahill (‘The Sopranos’) and Justin Doble (‘Stranger Things’).
Amazon reportedly paid $250 million for the rights to make this series. Production is expected to begin in 2020. There is some speculation that by the time the first season is done, Amazon will have spent $1 billion on it! Amazon is already committed to more than one season.
As Hissrich said in July:
“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.”
The first season of ‘Lord of the Rings’ is still coming together, so check back for updates.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
