‘Lord of the Rings’ Series Casts Will Poulter in Lead Role

By Joe Otterson, Variety
Published Sep. 4, 2019, 1:41 p.m. ET

Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings series has found one of its leads.

Will Poulter has been cast in one of the show’s lead roles, Variety has learned exclusively from sources. The exact nature of Poulter’s character is being kept under wraps. Variety reported in July that Australian actress Markella Kavenagh was in talks for a role in the series as well.

Amazon declined to comment. Reps for Poulter did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.

For Poulter, the role is a huge win as it was one of the more coveted jobs in town for young actors. He has already had a strong year, with lead roles in Netflix’s acclaimed interactive Black Mirror movie Bandersnatch and the Ari Aster horror pic Midsommar. Prior to that, Poulter was known for lead roles in The Maze Runner franchise, The Revenant, and Detroit.

He is repped by WME in the U.S. and Hamilton Hodell in the U.K.

The Lord of the Rings series is being developed by the writing team of JD Payne and Patrick McKay. In addition, Game of Thrones alum Bryan Cogman has signed on as a consulting producer on the project with J.A. Bayona set to direct multiple episodes.

In addition to those previously mentioned, the show’s full creative team will consist of: executive producers Lindsey Weber, Bruce Richmond, Gene Kelly, and Amazon’s former head of genre programming Sharon Tal Yguado; writer and executive producer Gennifer Hutchison; writer and executive producer Jason Cahill; writer and executive producer Justin Doble; consulting producer Stephany Folsom; producer Ron Ames; writer and co-producer Helen Shang; and writing consultant Glenise Mullins. Bayona will also executive produce along with his partner Belén Atienza.

Little is known about the plot of the Lord of the Rings series beyond the fact it will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. The show’s official Twitter account sent out an image of a map along with the two messages: “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie,” as well as “Welcome to the Second Age.” In the Tolkien mythology, the Second Age was the time in which the Rings of Power, including Sauron’s One Ring, came into existence.

Variety exclusively reported in November 2017 that a Lord of the Rings series was in the works at Amazon, with the streamer announcing a multi-season production commitment shortly thereafter. The series will be produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment.