Lord of the Rings TV Series Reportedly Casts Young Galadriel

While Amazon’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings TV series may have lost one of its stars earlier this month, fans will likely be excited to learn that the series has reportedly tapped Morfydd Clark to play a young Galdriel in the program, according to Variety. Clark can currently be seen in HBO’s His Dark Materials, though with how little audiences currently know about the TV adaptation, the bigger point of excitement is likely the tease that we could see a younger version of the character that Cate Blanchett brought to life in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Clark joins the previously-announced Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Ema Horvath, and Maxim Baldry. Last week, Will Poulter exited the series for unknown reasons.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom director J.A. Bayona is set to direct the series’ pilot.

“J.R.R. Tolkien created one of the most extraordinary and inspiring stories of all time, and as a lifelong fan it is an honor and a joy to join this amazing team,” Bayona previously shared. “I can’t wait to take audiences around the world to Middle-earth and have them discover the wonders of the Second Age, with a never before seen story.”

Rather than serving as a retread of the previous films in this universe that fans have already seen, the series aims to explore unseen corners of the mythology. Despite these new paths, the J.R.R. Tolkien estate put some limitations on the new series.

“Amazon has a relatively free hand when it comes to adding something, since, as I said, very few details are known about this time span,” Tolkien biographer Tom Shippey detailed earlier this year. “The Tolkien Estate will insist that the main shape of the Second Age is not altered. Sauron invades Eriador, is forced back by a Númenorean expedition, his returns to Númenor. There he corrupts the Númenoreans and seduces them to break the ban of the Valar. All this, the course of history, must remain the same.”

He added, “But you can add new characters and ask a lot of questions, like: What has Sauron done in the meantime? Where was he after Morgoth was defeated? Theoretically, Amazon can answer these questions by inventing the answers, since Tolkien did not describe it. But it must not contradict anything which Tolkien did say. That’s what Amazon has to watch out for. It must be canonical, it is impossible to change the boundaries which Tolkien has created, it is necessary to remain ‘tolkienian.’”

Stay tuned for details on the Lord of the Rings TV series.

Does this casting have you excited? Let us know in the comments below!