It has already been nearly 8 years since Elijah Wood made his last appearance as Frodo Baggins in 2012’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. In a recent interview with IndieWire, Wood finally commented on Amazon Studios’ highly-anticipated Lord of the Rings series. When asked about the possibility of returning to the beloved epic franchise, he immediately answered that he’s “absolutely” open to reprising his iconic role as long as his cameo would make sense to the whole story.
“If there was a world where that made sense and was organic to what they’re doing then yes,” Wood said. “Look, any excuse to get to go to New Zealand to work on something I am absolutely there.”
In addition, he also gave out some criticism about the upcoming show’s potential title, revealing it would be very misleading if the producers would continue to with “The Lord of the Rings” title. “They’re calling it The Lord of the Rings, but I think that’s slightly misleading. From what I understand, the material they are working on exists chronologically further back in history in the lore of Lord of the Rings or Middle-earth than any characters represented in Lord of the Rings. It sounds more ‘Silmarillion’ era. Not to get nerdy, but it’s the Second Age of Middle-earth.”
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The highly-anticipated Lord of the Rings series will be set in the Second Age. That places approximately 3,000 years of history between the series and the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. Casual fans may not realize it, but Jackson’s Fellowship of the Rings actually depicted the end of the Second Age, when the last alliance of elves and men confronted Sauron’s forces. The Second Age covered nearly 3,441 years, and it began after the banishment of Morgoth, the dark lord before Sauron. There’s a lot of story potential in that time, including the rise of Sauron, the creation of the One Ring, and the emergence of the Ringwraiths.
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The series will star Robert Aramayo (Game of Thrones) Joseph Mawle (Game of Thrones), Maxim Baldry (Years and Years), Markella Kavenagh, Ema Horvath and Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud), who will portray the role of a young Galadriel which the first confirmed major character that will be featured in the series. It will also feature Tom Budge, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, and Charlie Vickers.
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Juan Antonio (J.A.) Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Orphanage, The Impossible) will direct the first two episodes of Amazon Studios’ The Lord of the Rings TV series and also executive produce alongside his producing partner Belén Atienza. JD Payne and Patrick McKay are showrunning and executive producing the series alongside Lindsey Weber (10 Cloverfield Lane), Bruce Richmond (Game of Thrones), Gene Kelly (Boardwalk Empire), Sharon Tal Yguado, Gennifer Hutchison (Breaking Bad), Jason Cahill (The Sopranos), and Justin Doble (Stranger Things).
The Lord of the Rings series is produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema. It is expected to debut in 2021.
