Rory Kinnear has been confirmed to portray the fan-favourite J.R.R. Tolkien character Tom Bombadil in the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which will premiere on Prime Video this August.
Check out some first-look images of Kinnear in character here…
This announcement comes after much online speculation, as the timeless, mysterious, and jovial Tom Bombadil has been beloved by Tolkien fans for decades.
For those who don’t know, Tom Bombadil is a figure of unknown origin in Tolkien’s works who projects a timeless wisdom, often propelling characters in a direction to see things more clearly and helping them better understand the wide world around them. In the lore, he claims to be as old as Middle-earth itself, possessing wisdom far beyond the reaches of others. Essential to the spirit of discovery and of the search for meaning, Bombadil is famously clad in yellow boots, blue jacket, and a feathered hat, and prone to enigmatic expressions in singsong verse.
The series’ showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay have said they are excited to bring this new element to the story. “He’s whimsical and magical, and almost verging on silly. But also has the wisdom of the ages and the music of the spheres and deep emotional wells of ancient history and myth, and his conception and function are tied to Norse myths and have deep roots in European fairy tale,” McKay says. “So weirdly, he’s kind of the most Lord of the Rings thing in Lord of the Rings.”
“Tom is sort of a curiosity within that structure because while it is darker, Tom Bombadil is singing and saying lines that could be nursery rhymes from children’s poems,” Payne adds. “So, he sort of defies the tonal shift of the rest of the season and is a real point of light amidst an otherwise sea of darkness.”
Kinnear has been said to have embraced the opportunity to jump into the famed yellow boots, elaborating that while the description of Tom Bombadil was well-known to readers, he relished the opportunity to portray the voice and mannerisms of the enigmatic being for the first time in a filmed iteration of Tolkien’s work.
“There’s this sense of huge experience, huge openness, huge empathy, and having gone through so much that he [Bombadil] knows it’s the small things that are important,” Kinnear said. “That felt actually quite domestic, felt quite reachable in terms of my understanding of who he was.”
Season Two of The Rings of Power will debut globally on Thursday 29 August 2024 on Prime Video. Season One is currently available on Prime Video.
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Related posts:
The Lord Of The Rings: TV show title announced
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power S2: Ciarán Hinds, Rory Kinnear, and Tanya Moodie join cast
The Rings of Power showrunners sign new Amazon deal and begin work on Season Three
Epic teaser released for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power S2
