Amazon is hard at work making its Lord of the Rings series which still has no official release date. However, we can mark some progress being made now that Amazon announced 20 new cast members joining those originally announced. The new talent has a diverse background with actors from New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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.
The series will take place during the Second Age, which is a 3,441-year period before the storyline of Frodo and company. So it’s highly unlikely any characters from the original movies will make any appearances. Amazon previously announced cast members include Years and Years actor Maxim Baldry taking a large role, as well as Morfydd Clark who plays Sister Clara in the TV series His Dark Materials.
Amazon has already confirmed a season 2 and has rights to five seasons, so you’ll have plenty to binge watch when it does get released. The first season is set to have a whopping 20 episodes with an assumed 40-60 minutes apiece. Amazon has invested heavily in this project. After beating out Netflix with a $250 million deal for rights to the series, rumors have been circulating that the entire project will surpass $1 billion.