According to both sources, the show will focus heavily on the character of Isildur, to be played by Rome actor Maxim Baldry. Reportedly the show will open during the reign of Tar-Palantir, a Numenorean king who is friend and ally to the elves of Middle-earth, striving to repair their relationship after a long period of strained relations. However, Tar-Palantir is an anomaly and there are dark forces gathering on the island of Numenor which seek to return to their policies of human supremacy and domination. It falls to Elendil (Lloyd Owen) and his son Isildur, as leaders of "the Faithful," to help the righteous and true people of Numenor evade the chaos that is coming.
Viewers of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy may briefly recall that Elendil and Isildur appear in the prologue to The Fellowship of the Ring, played by Peter McKenzie and Harry Sinclair respectively.
News of the casting and apparent setting has come as a surprise, since the logical starting point for a Second Age-set Middle-earth show is much earlier, when Sauron the Dark Lord infiltrates the elves of Eregion in fair guise and corrupts their proud leader, Celebrimbor, into teaching him how to forge the Rings of Power, knowledge which Sauron then uses to forge the One Ring. This triggers a colossal war between the elves and Sauron, which would have ended in defeat had the men of the island empire of Numenor not landed in force to give aid to the elves. This story would have amply given rise to several seasons of content, as well as allowing a time jump to a later point in the history to tell the story of Elendil and Isildur.
Some have speculated that Isildur will be a framing character and there may be lengthy flashbacks to earlier time periods, but Fellowship of Fans has shot down this idea, claiming that whilst there will be LotR-style brief flashbacks to earlier periods (proven by the first publicity shot, which depicts the Two Trees of Light from the First Age), the bulk of the story will appear in-situ in the present.
The news does make sense of a reported new storyline, in which a tribe of Harfoot hobbits (led by a character played by Lenny Henry) appear out of the east to settle in the wild lands of western Middle-earth. This makes much more sense in the late Second Age, a millennia or so before they migrate to the Vale of Anduin (from whence they will colonise the Shire), rather than halfway through the Second Age.
The first season of the show is in post-production and will debut on Amazon Prime on 2 September 2022. Shooting of the second season is expected to begin after Christmas in the UK.
1 comment:
In a bass ackwards way this makes sense. Do the Elendil story that is well known and ends where we've already seen. Then if that is a hit the forging of the Ring as a prequel. But if you start early you have no human and few elf (Elrond and Galadriel) characters casual fans will know.
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