For a while now, we’ve known that Amazon was making a tremendously expensive show based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. But because Amazon is keeping its writers behind 18 layers of heavy security, details about the show have been scarce. For a while there were rumors that it would revolve around the adventures of a young Aragorn, the man who would be king, but then Amazon’s official Lord of the Rings Twitter account started dropping maps that hinted at the show being set earlier in time, and we weren’t sure what to think. Tolkien invented a very rich world with a long history; this show has a lot of options.
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, pic.twitter.com/Btk2CRsQI2
— The Lord of the Rings on Prime (@LOTRonPrime) February 18, 2019
But as the Game of Thrones producers learned long ago, all the on-set secrecy in the world won’t save you if an actor decides to blab in an interview. And so it was that Tom Payne, who you might recognize as Jesus from The Walking Dead, sat down with Metro to talk about what he was up to lately and let a few things slip. Potential SPOILERS follow.
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Okay, right out of the gate, the big takeaway is that the show will definitely involve Aragorn. Payne let that out when Metro asked him if he was going to cut his long hair now that his Walking Dead character was written off the show. “There aren’t that many actors with hair like this,” he said. “And Amazon are casting Aragorn and they’re doing Interview With The Vampire on Hulu so there’s all these good jobs.”
“, I’m going to hang on to unless it’s an amazing role.”
Viggo Mortensen had long hair when he played Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, so we see Payne’s point, but somehow I don’t know if Amazon will be super-interested in casting him after he revealed this secret. Hulu’s upcoming Vampire Chronicles show may indeed be a safer bet.
Mind you, this doesn’t mean that Amazon’s show will limit itself to covering Aragorn’s story — like I said, Tolkien has given the company plenty of material to work with — but I think it’s a safe bet. Is it the right one? Discuss.
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