Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series finalized its core cast back in January and the announcement included 15 actors headed to Middle-earth. At the time of the announcement, however, Amazon’s Co-head of TV Vernon Sanders noted that the series still had a few more roles to cast and it looks like one of those roles has finally been filled. The deal took months to come together, but Lord of the Rings has finally signed on Maxim Baldry in a leading role.
Maxim Baldry was rumored to be starring in the Lord of the Rings series back in the fall. Per Deadline, the actor’s deal was recently finalized and he has signed on to play a key role. However, while he’ll be starring in a lead role, details about who he will play are being kept under wraps.
While the actor has roles in Last Christmas, BBC’s ever-popular Doctor Who, and HBO’s acclaimed sci-fi drama Years and Years, Maxim Baldry isn’t yet a household name in Hollywood. That’s fine considering the rest of the key cast range from being relative unknowns to vaguely familiar actors, like His Dark Materials star Morfydd Clark, who joined the cast in an important role, or Homeland and Counterpart actress Nazanin Boniadi.
However, the actor with the most name recognition was arguably Will Poulter, who was cast to play a leading character named Beldor last September. Unfortunately, he had to drop out of Lord of the Rings due to scheduling conflicts. Those conflicts were due to the series halting production to take a five-month break to finish the majority of its Season 2 scripts before filming in New Zealand. He was ultimately replaced in the role by Game of Thrones’ Robert Aramayo.
The finalization of Maxim Baldry’s deal is good news, as production already began on the Amazon series back in February. The actor joins an already packed ensemble cast. The first season of Lord of the Rings is expected to consist of eight episodes. The previous episode count was reported to have been around 20 episodes, which would have been unprecedented for a streaming service.
In recent years, most streaming services shows get around 8-10 episodes a season. Lord of the Rings getting an eight-episode count for its first season makes far more sense. With a second season already greenlit, fans shouldn’t expect a round of cancellation news or anything. That’s a good thing considering how much money Amazon has already reportedly invested in the series (spoiler alert: it’s a lot!).
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings doesn’t have a scheduled premiere date yet, but stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates. In the meantime, be sure to check out our 2020 midseason schedule for more on what to watch.
