Amazon’s Lord of the Rings Series Finds First Cast Member in Markella Kavenagh
Variety reports that the first official cast member for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV series has been found with Australian actress Markella Kavenagh (Picnic at Hanging Rock). Little is known about the role she’ll play but Variety reports her character is named Tyra.
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 writing the series, with Emmy-winner Bryan Cogman (Game of Thrones) onboard as a consultant and Gennifer Hutchison (Breaking Bad) making up a part of the writers’ room as well.
The highly-anticipated Lord of the Rings series will be set in the Second Age, Amazon recently confirmed. 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.
The rights to the fan-favorite fantasy series were acquired by Amazon last year and is expected to be the most expensive television series ever made, rumored figures for both the television rights and production costs for the entire series are in the $500 million range.
RELATED: Rosamund Pike Joins Amazon’s Wheel of Time Series Adaptation
The Lord of the Rings series is produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema.
Production has yet to begin for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series but is expected to premiere in 2021.
(Photo by Hanna Lassen/WireImage)