A new report says that the classic Tolkien characters Sauron, Galadriel and Elrond will appear in Amazon's upcoming The Lord of the Rings TV show. The show will be based on Tolkien's wider mythology of Middle-Earth and is not a direct adaptation of the events depicted in his novels and the film adaptations by Peter Jackson. The plot of the show will instead focus on the events of the second age of Middle-Earth, which are included in Tolkien's Silmarillion.

The Lord of the Rings is reportedly going to be one of the most expensive TV shows in history, and began filming earlier this year in New Zealand. However, it was subsequently shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic and only recently started shooting again. JA Bayona, director of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, will reportedly helm the first two episodes. The cast for the show is vast, and consists mostly of younger or relatively unknown actors, with the biggest name star to be confirmed, Will Poulter, dropping out of the show due to scheduling conflicts. Who those actors will be playing has been kept under wraps so far.

But a report from TheOneRing.net's Twitter says that three major characters from The Lord of the Rings movies and novels will appear in Amazon's show. The tweet, which adds that the production is the biggest in New Zealand history, says Sauron, Galadriel and Elrond will all appear on the show. The tweet says the news was announced during this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con@Home.


The appearance of the three characters mentioned was always assumed, as all three play major roles in the early wars of the ring, which all take place in the Second Age. But this news confirms their appearance, and should get Tolkien fans even more excited for the show.

It will be interesting how the cast deals with playing such iconic roles, particularly as both Galadriel and Elrond are still so closely associated with Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving respectively. The actor who plays Sauron won't face this struggle, as the character was disembodied in the events depicted in the movies.

Regardless, it's exciting to known that the TV show is aiming to stick to Tolkien's version of the Second Age fairly closely, if the appearance of the three characters in anything to go by. The Second Age as written about by Tolkien covers the creation of the Rings Of Power and the Ringwraiths by Sauron, and both Galadriel and Elrond are pivotal in the defeat of Sauron. Just how The Lord of the Rings TV show will condense all 3,441 years of the Second Age into a few seasons is a question that has yet to be answered, though.