Update (12/12/19): Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series has just lost one of its stars.

Back in September, we learned that actor Will Poulter had officially joined the cast of Amazon’s highly anticipated Lord of the Rings series.

Now, we’re learning that the show will have to go on without Poulter in the part.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Poulter has officially left the project due to scheduling conflicts.

Others who are still on board to be featured in the Lord of the Rings series include Joseph Mawle (who will play the central villain), Markella Kavenagh, and Ema Horvath.

As for Poulter, when word of his involvement with the project was first announced, it was also being reported that the Midsommar star would be playing an unspecified lead role on the series.

With Poulter out, it frees up space for Amazon to find another actor to fill that role, whatever it might be.

For now, we’ll be keeping our eyes and ears open for more casting news surrounding the highly anticipated series, which is slated to start production sometime next year in New Zealand.

Original Story (9/5/19):

Will Poulter is going on an adventure, joining the cast of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series in a leading (but still unnamed) role.

Will Poulter has landed some pretty spectacular roles lately, playing game developer Colin Ritman in Netflix’s interactive hit Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, and more recently as Mark in Midsommar. Now he’s heading to Middle Earth for some serious adventures in Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series.

As Variety reports, Poulter has been cast as one of the show’s leads. Unfortunately, like everything else on Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series, we don’t have a lot of details about Will Poulter’s role. Or any details, to be exact.

Neither Amazon nor Poulter’s team have responded to Variety in regards to the casting, and we likely won’t hear more about Poulter’s role for a while as officially-released details about the show are pretty sparse. However, we do know that Poulter will be joining Markella Kavenagh, who’s casting has already been announced. Kavenagh will be playing a brand-new character named Tyra.

The Lord of the Rings series will be set in an era known as the Second Age or the Age of Númenor. The Second Age spans well over 3,000 years and takes place before the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

So can we expect to see some familiar faces like Sir Ian McKellan as Gandalf or Andy Serkis as Gollum? At this point, we can’t say for sure either way, but both actors have expressed excitement over the show while also doubting they’d be joining the cast. Indie Wire even reported that Orlando Bloom has even expressed that he thinks he’s done all he can with Legolas, and if they choose to bring the character back, they should cast “a 19-year-old kid.”

So while it’s unlikely we’ll see any familiar faces in Amazon’s new series, we’re so excited to see what Amazon is cooking up for us as they take us to the Second Age. Will Poulter has proven himself to be quite an outstanding actor, and he should bring something truly great to the series.