Amazon's 'Lord of the Rings' Show to Have Diverse Cast of Black, Asian and Pacific Islander Hobbits: Actor
As “The Lord of the Rings” migrates from the big screen to television, some changes will be made.
For one, the version embraced by Amazon in its TV series will have a multiracial cast, according to a new report.
British comedian Sir Lenny Henry, 63, on Saturday spoke to the BBC about the changes, according to the website BleedingCool.
“For the last two years, I’ve been working on Lord Of The Rings, and it’s an extraordinary thing; it’s the biggest television show that’s ever been made, in terms of money and head count. Literally, a hundred people on set glaring at you and trying to work out what you’ll look like four feet tall,” Henry said.
Thank you to our intrepid crew on the black rocks. (8/8) pic.twitter.com/LDsoL6iMMd
— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) August 3, 2021
“I’m a Harfoot, because J.R.R. Tolkien, who was also from Birmingham — suddenly there were black hobbits. I’m a black hobbit, it’s brilliant, and what’s notable about this run of the books, it’s a prequel to the age that we’ve seen in the films,” Henry said.
“It’s about the early days of the Shire and Tolkien’s environment, so we’re an indigenous population of Harfoots. We’re hobbits, but we’re called Harfoots — we’re multicultural, we’re a tribe not a race, so we’re black, Asian and brown, even Maori types within it.”
Black hobbits!! https://t.co/0MfcNkrVc0
— caitlin ?? (@nimruthiel) October 9, 2021
Would be funny if it wasn’t so sad
@LennyHenry pretending that Tolkien mentioned black hobbits in his work ? complete misrepresentation/fabrication of Tolkien’s work and the nerve to pretend Hobbits are a tribe of white/black/Asian ethnicities. Cringehttps://t.co/RhBtaCU5zG— EverEngland (@EverEngland1) October 10, 2021
“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy debuted in theaters in 2001. The TV series will begin in September 2022 and will air on the Prime Video streaming platform.
Henry called the show “a brand-new set of adventures that seed some of the origins of different characters, and it’s going to take at least 10 years to tell the story. Because it’s based on The Silmarillion, which was almost like a cheat sheet for what happens next in this world in the second and third ages.”
The TV version of “The Lord of the Rings” will have “a very strong female presence in this, there’s going to be female heroes in this evocation of the story, they’re going to be little people as usual,” Henry told BleedingCool.
The show will be set at least 1,000 years before the events of the movies, according to ScreenRant.
On September 2, 2022, a new journey begins. pic.twitter.com/9tnR7WqDoA
— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) August 2, 2021
Amazon has said the show features “an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth,” according to Entertainment Weekly.
The outlet reported that the first season of the series cost about $464 million, which likely would make it the most expensive TV series ever made.
Amazon already is planning a second season.
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