Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ wraps casting for first season

July 3, 2021

Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ wraps casting for first season

Amazon‘s hotly-anticipated series, ‘The Lord of the Rings’, has finally completed casting on season one. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the big-budget series, which began production in early 2020, has added ‘The Crown’ actor Charles Edwards, ‘The Girl Who Fell’ actor Will Fletcher, ‘The Machine’ actor Amelie Child-Villiers, and newcomer Beau Cassidy to its ensemble cast for the first season.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the big-budget series, which began production in early 2020, has added ‘The Crown’ actor Charles Edwards, ‘The Girl Who Fell’ actor Will Fletcher, ‘The Machine’ actor Amelie Child-Villiers, and newcomer Beau Cassidy to its ensemble cast for the first season.

Other details like who will play what in the live-action ‘Lord of the Rings’ series are being kept under wraps. Announced in November 2017, Amazon acquired global TV rights to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and handed out a multiple-season commitment to the series.

The drama series is being produced in-house at Amazon Studios alongside the Tolkien Estate and Trust, publisher HarperCollins and Warner Bros. Entertainment’s New Line Cinema. J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay who worked in ‘Star Trek 4’ will serve as showrunners on the series based on Tolkien’s iconic fantasy novels.

J.A. Bayona, ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ fame, is set to direct the first two episodes and will executive produce, along with his producing partner Belen Atienza. Writers Gennifer Hutchison, Jason Cahill- ‘The Sopranos’ fame and Justin Doble- ‘Stranger Things’ fame are also serving as executive producers as Lindsey Weber, Bruce Richmond- ‘Game of Thrones’, Callum Greene- ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ and former Amazon head of genre Sharon Tal Yguado.

Bryan Cogman, who served as a consulting producer on season one, has departed to focus on development. Former executive producer Gene Kelly has also departed the series. A premiere date for ‘LOTR’ has not been made public yet, however, in an earlier interview to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke said that the “hope” was that the series will go on air in 2021.