New Lord of the Rings TV series thread.

[Glebe]

So the old Lord of the Rings TV series thread hasn't had post for - shock! - about two-and-a-half years (yes, it's been a long time in development...), thought I'd start a new thread for this little bit of news:

Amazon Studios Announces Wave 2 of Casting for Lord of the Rings TV Show.

AMAZON STUDIOS ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL CAST MEMBERS FOR THE LORD OF THE RINGS TELEVISION SERIES

Hailing From Five Different Countries, Emerging and Established International Talent Join the Ensemble Cast Currently In Production in New Zealand

(CULVER CITY, Calif. – December 3, 2020) – Amazon Studios today announces twenty additional cast members joining the ensemble cast of the Amazon Original series based on the iconic The Lord of the Rings novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. The newly revealed cast members will join the previously announced global cast and crew, currently filming in New Zealand.

The new cast members include Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Simon Merrells,​ Geoff Morrell, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker and Sara Zwangobani.

Blackburn, Chapman, Crum, Cunliffe, Tait, Tarrant and Wadham all hail from New Zealand, with the remaining international ensemble cast originating from Australia, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay said: "The world that J.R.R. Tolkien created is epic, diverse, and filled with heart. These extraordinarily talented performers, hailing from across the globe, represent the culmination of a multi-year search to find brilliant and unique artists to bring that world to life anew. The international cast of Amazon's The Lord of the Rings series is more than just an ensemble. It is a family. We are thrilled to welcome each of them to Middle-earth."

As previously announced, the series is led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay; they are joined by filmmaker J.A. Bayona, who is directing the first two episodes and serving as executive producer, alongside his creative partner Belén Atienza; with executive producers Lindsey Weber, Bruce Richmond, Callum Greene, Gennifer Hutchison, Jason Cahill, Justin Doble and Sharon Tal Yguado.

The new cast members join Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman as announced earlier this year.

Set in Middle-earth, the television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring. A world-renowned literary work, and winner of the International Fantasy Award and Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, The Lord of the Rings was named Amazon customers' favorite book of the millennium in 1999 and Britain's best-loved novel of all time in BBC's The Big Read in 2003. The Lord of the Rings has been translated into around 40 languages and has sold more than 150 million copies. Its theatrical adaptations from New Line Cinema and director Peter Jackson, earned a combined gross of nearly $6 billion worldwide and garnered 17 Academy Awards®, including Best Picture.

None too familiar with most of the names there, but there's Peter Mullan - and Lenny Henry! - among them. It was set to premiere next year, but I imagine it'll '22 before we see it now.

[Dex Sawash]

XMAS VERSUS 2018 second round draw

[bgmnts]

With absolutely massive amount of source material, vague enough to develop ideas on, they're going for the exact thing that sounds boring as shit.

People have seen LotR and the Hobbit. Let's go back a bit, or even forwards! Fucksake.

[VelourSpirit]

With absolutely massive amount of source material, vague enough to develop ideas on, they're going for the exact thing that sounds boring as shit.

People have seen LotR and the Hobbit. Let's go back a bit, or even forwards! Fucksake.

It's set in the Second Age though, thousands of years before those

[Dog Botherer]

this'll be shit i reckon

[bgmnts]

It's set in the Second Age though, thousands of years before those

Ah fair enough.

I read this:

As for Amazon's series, the show is expected to explore new storylines that occur before the events of the "The Fellowship of the Ring" film.

As saying it takes place immediately before the LotR but after the Hobbit. Dealing with Aragorn and Gandalf and Gollum etc.

I'd ideally like to see the First Age to be honest as that'd be a spectacle.

[Glebe]

[Deanjam]

So long as it doesn't try to be Game of Thrones then I'll be up for giving it a go. It has to have a heart. Keep your grim, rapey, miserablism away thank you.

[Dex Sawash]

Superbowl trailer looked shit

[Mobius]

Yeah it looks way too clean and just has that horrible computery The Hobbit look, rather than the LOTR look.

It doesn't feel like Midddle Earth from that trailer, just another generic fantasy.

[mothman]

It doesn't feel like Midddle Earth from that trailer, just another generic fantasy.

Which is all it was ever going to be.

[Glebe]

Hmm. Not thrilled by that.

[shoulders]

Is it a sneak peek or meant to be an actual trailer?

If the latter you'd think that it would do a better job of explaining what it's about and why anyone should bother watching.

[Inspector Norse]

Is it a sneak peek or meant to be an actual trailer?

If the latter you'd think that it would do a better job of explaining what it's about and why anyone should bother watching.

I reckon they're assuming the words "LORD OF THE RINGS" will do that job for them. They could probably just release webcam footage of Bezos squinting at his sudoku book while he cranks out the tiny, rock-hard turds of a man who lives exclusively on canapés and Armand de Brignac and label it "LORD OF THE RINGS" and people would get excited about it.

[The Mollusk]

Fucking hell the comments hahaha

https://youtu.be/OCLoZI-FOYA

[Shaky]

Absolute toxic slush. Makes me ashamed to be a fan of fucking anything. Half of these twats will like the show once it appears, anyway.

[BlodwynPig]

Will Lenny Henry wear his red nose and how much teal will be involved?

The youtube comments were complaining about Hobbits being black. I don't think Tolkein referenced Hobbit skin colour? Others said that there were hardly any black people in medieval Britain.

Race below the bottom now.

[Mister Six]

My only concern is that this will wind up like Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who - a bunch of nice progressive casting/story decisions undone by poor writing. I get the impression that a lot of studios know that they can get a lot of positive buzz from online media with the right casting choices, regardless of how decent the writing is.

I also saw an interesting argument by a black guy on Facebook against having black Hobbits or whatever - he said he used to roll his eyes at white trolls saying "Where are the white Wakandans?" because obviously Wakanda, although fictional, is inspired by West African traditions and aesthetics, and then he had the same revelation about Middle Earth - that it was inspired by British/Western mythology, so it's appropriate to have a white cast.

Personally, I'm not fussed, especially as there has already been a definitive white-centric LotR adaptation, and it's still great to this day.

[Catalogue Trousers]

Mention The Lord Of The Rings just once more...

[shoulders]

I also saw an interesting argument by a black guy on Facebook against having black Hobbits or whatever - he said he used to roll his eyes at white trolls saying "Where are the white Wakandans?" because obviously Wakanda, although fictional, is inspired by West African traditions and aesthetics, and then he had the same revelation about Middle Earth - that it was inspired by British/Western mythology, so it's appropriate to have a white cast

Good to see there are still those that recognise that and, regardless of personal qualms over keeping art as it was intended, don't conflate tokenism with representation / actual equity/justice. No surprise it is a black person as they're finer tuned to tell the difference than anyone.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Cheddar man was black, so can hobbits

[Mister Six]

Good to see there are still those that recognise that and, regardless of personal qualms over keeping art as it was intended, don't conflate tokenism with representation / actual equity/justice. No surprise it is a black person as they're finer tuned to tell the difference than anyone.

There were several other black people who said more or less that - they'd rather have original stories created for a black cast, drawing on black influences, than arbitrarily having some dwarves or Hobbits in a Eurocentric fantasy world be black. Others said that they'd much rather have the black actors play characters from Tolkein's ersatz Middle Eastern/African nations, which weren't told in detail in the books, but are there apparently (presumably where the elephant lads came from in the movies, too).

Having read those, I was swayed a bit more.

I suppose the problem is that the big push for representation in Hollywood comes at the same time as the industry is becoming ever more creatively conservative, and only interested in recycling proven preexisting IPs... which are, for all kinds of bad reasons, mostly by and about white people.

So instead of some awesome new Afrofuturist thing or whatever, it's Hobbits - but black. Or Spider-Man - but black. Or Superman - but black.

If only they'd have the balls or brains to move laterally within those restrictions - I'd love to see a show that focuses on Middle Earth's Africa, and draws on African mythologies and tropes as Tolkein drew on European ones. But that would take a tiny sliver of courage, and also involve hiring writers who really know what they're doing, and most execs have no idea themselves.

Safer, then, to just do That Movie From 20 Years Ago (black edition) and cheaply hire a bunch of writers with minimal credits and little clout in the industry.

[Catalogue Trousers]

Can I just say, Mister Six, wise and excellent words. I may well steal them myself, like dear old Oscar.

[purlieu]

So instead of some awesome new Afrofuturist thing or whatever, it's Hobbits - but black. Or Spider-Man - but black. Or Superman - but black.

The sad thing being just how fucking successful Black Panther was. Surely that alone should have opened the floodgates for tons more more genuinely Afrocentric black sci-fi and fantasy rather than "let's pretend white characters can be black too". It's just a bit... underwhelming.

[Mister Six]

Can I just say, Mister Six, wise and excellent words. I may well steal them myself, like dear old Oscar.

Aw, cheers, Catalogue Trousers! Pilfer away.

The sad thing being just how fucking successful Black Panther was. Surely that alone should have opened the floodgates for tons more more genuinely Afrocentric black sci-fi and fantasy rather than "let's pretend white characters can be black too". It's just a bit... underwhelming.

Yeah, but of course the message they take from that movie making $1.4 billion was that you can have black superheroes in your preexisting blockbuster IP. Not that audiences will welcome - are hungry for, even - movies with all-black casts, exciting Afrofuturist/Afrofantasy visions or mainstream films with quality, thematically rich scripts.

So that's why we're getting black Superman at some point soon.

And I'm not going to cry about the existence of black Superman like so many racist little fanboy dipshits (especially if they make him "proper" Superman in personality, instead of yet another grimdark, edgy take on Clark Kent), but I'd rather see something new up there. Christ, even an adaptation of Dwayne McDuffie's Icon, which does the "black Superman" thing except Superman is a black bootstraps Republican paired up with a plucky progressive teen sidekick, and when he does the classic "float down in front of a hostage situation and say "Can I help you, officer?" Superman move, this happens:.





Until then, I guess, black Hobbits it is.

[phantom_power]

I find it amusing that there are lots of people who have managed to convince the world they aren't a bit racist and the way they have given themselves away is because of the casting of a Lord of the Rings series on Amazon that will probably be shit anyway

[mothman]

It may be more complex than that. They've learned from things like Star Trek: Discovery, where you see this unlikely (and often unwitting and unwilling) alignment of people who don't like the show because, well, it's just not very good - with people who aren't (and never were) Trek fans but who hate what it represents in general, and DSC in particular because it has too many women and blacks and gays in for their liking.

The show not being very good then gives these latter groups an "in" to criticise its message through dishonest criticism of the show's actual flaws.

[Mister Six]

Irritatingly - though less harmfully - it also gives the defenders an "in" to dismiss criticism of poor writing as misogyny or racism (or homophobia, transphobia etc). Seen this happen a lot around Chibnall Who and Star Trek: Discovery.

As I mentioned above, I think studios are aware of this, and will seek to paper over crap writing with progressive casting, which does everyone a disservice.

[mothman]

Also good points. You're on fire! In this thread anyway. 😝

[Mister Six]

It had to happen at some point.