Amazon's LORD OF THE RINGS Series is Casting It's First Star with Markella Kavenagh
Amazon’s highly anticipated $1 billion dollar series based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has started the casting process! According to Variety, the series is going to cast the show’s first star with Markella Kavenagh.
There aren’t really any details to share about the character other than that the name of her character will be Tyra. I’m not really familiar with any of Kavenagh’s previous work, but she’s starred in the shows Romper Stomper, Picnic at Hanging Park, and The Cry.
Director J.A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, A Monster Calls, The Orphanage) recently signed on to direct two episodes of the series, which is currently being written by Star Trek 4 writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay.
In addition, Game of Thrones alum Bryan Cogman has signed on as a consultant on the project. The series is said to explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. We really don’t know what the series will focus on, but an interesting setting has been teased in some maps released to promote the series, hinting that the story for the show could involve the island of Numenor.
Numenor was a kingdom of men established on an island brought up out of the sea by the Valar in the early Second Age after the final ruin of Beleriand, and was where the Númenoreans originated from. It was a “gift to Men. It was also called Elenna or the Isle of Elenna ("Starwards") because the Dúnedain were led to it by the star of Eärendil, and because the island was in the shape of a five-pointed star.”
The men of Numenor lived in peace, and they were forbidden by the Valar “from sailing so far westward that Númenor was no longer visible, for fear that they would come upon the Undying Lands, to which men could not come.”
They ended up resenting Valar and their ban, and the Númenóreans wanted to break free and explore the world and wanted everlasting life. “They tried to compensate this by going eastward and colonizing large parts of Middle-earth, first in a friendly way, but later as tyrants. Soon the Númenóreans came to rule a great but terrorizing maritime empire that had no rival, but a few (the Faithful) remained loyal to the Valar and friendly to the elves.”
They ended up taking over sections of Middle Earth, and with Sauron on the rise, Numenor would meet its tragic downfall down the line, but its survivors would go on to create the kingdoms of Armor and Gondor.
We don’t really know what exactly the series will entail, but I can’t wait to find out!