Orlando Bloom (Legolas) weighs in on Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show

What does Orlando Bloom (Legolas) make of Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings show, and could his character be in it? Elves are immortal, after all.

For fantasy fans of a certain age, there are a few actors who will forever be associated with Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. It’s impossible for me to look at Elijah Wood and not think of Frodo Baggins, or at Ian McKellen and not remember his performance as Gandalf the Grey. And as the elf Legolas, Orlando Bloom may have been the breakout star of that series; with his long flowing blonde hair and piercing eyes, Bloom will be forever associated with the character.

And now, Amazon is making a new Lord of the Rings show, although as Bloom is quick to remind us, it’s not the story we remember. “One of the producers on that, I’m working with quite closely on a few different projects I’m developing for Amazon, because I’ve got this first-look deal, and he’s working with Amazon on that, producing that show, so he’s on the ground over there right now,” he told Collider. “And I kinda had a few questions for him to begin with, and then I was like, you know what? I don’t need to know anymore. It’s not, obviously, a remake, it’s actually not based on the Fellowship or any of that, so I think it could be really, really interesting, from that perspective.”

Instead, the new show is set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, long before characters like Frodo and Sam were around. As an immortal elf, Legolas was around for at least part of that time, but it doesn’t sound like he’ll be a part of the new show.

“I remember being on set with [director] Peter [Jackson] and him saying, ‘Can you imagine the day they do a remake of this movie?’ And then, here we are, 20 years later,” Bloom recalled. “But it’s not a remake and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a title for a world, but I think it’s gonna be interesting from that perspective because, I think if it was gonna be a remake, you’re gonna take us back into Hobbiton and try and tell us what we saw? It was such an informative time that’s had such an impact and so it’s different, what’s coming, and I think that’s a good thing. It’ll be interesting. I’m gonna fan it up for sure. [Eating] popcorn, streaming.”

So what will the new show actually be about? We still don’t know a ton, although the Second Age is pretty eventful, so the producers have a lot to work with. Sauron is busy making the Rings of Power, there’s lots going down on the isle of Númenor…the sky’s the limit.

And although Bloom likely won’t be in the cast, we know plenty of folk who are, including Game of Thrones veteran Robert Aramayo (Young Ned Stark), Morfydd Clark as a young Galadriel, and many more.

Bloom’s LOTR castmate Elijah Wood (Frodo) has also sounded off about the new series, saying that the title is a bit “misleading.” He’d still be up for a cameo, though.

Leaving behind Middle-earth, Bloom also talked a bit about his Amazon show Carnival Row, a fantasy series with more of a steampunk vibe. The second season was apparently just three weeks away from the end of shooting when the coronavirus shut everything down, but it’s still on the way. In fact, Bloom says that Amazon plans to release the first five episodes by themselves, and then release the final four later, after shooting is finished.

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h/t MovieWeb