Simon Merrells Archives - The Wide Screen

December 3, 2020December 3, 2020

“The Lord Of The Rings” Reveals 20 New Castmembers!

Do I have any idea why the Instagram page for Amazon Prime’s The Lord Of The Rings just randomly announced twenty new cast-members for the upcoming series this morning without doing the same on their Twitter account, and seemingly without any warning? No, I do not. Today is not a holiday in the Tolkien fandom, and it has no great significance in the chronologies of Middle-earth (Frodo spent all of December comfortably and unremarkably hunkered down in Rivendell). That being said, am I objecting in any way, shape, or form? No, I most certainly am not. The twenty new additions widen and diversify the series’ main cast dramatically, giving us a little more insight into what Amazon Prime is aiming for with their epic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings.

Unlike today’s date, the number twenty is especially significant in Tolkien’s deep lore, as it’s the number of Rings of Power that were forged in the Second Age, all but three under the influence and guidance of Sauron. Amazon Prime’s The Lord Of The Rings, as we’ve discussed many times, takes place sometime during the Second Age, three-thousand years before the events of the novel itself. This Age of Middle-earth’s history is only vaguely sketched out in the pages of The Lord Of The Rings, with more information coming from the book’s extensive appendices – and mostly from Tolkien’s posthumously published works, including Unfinished Tales. But if you want to read more about that, you can check out several posts I’ve written on the subject, including my timeline of the Second Age; right now, let’s get to the good stuff!

First up, the casting announcements confirm some things we’ve already known or strongly suspected for a while now. Simon Merrells, Maxim Baldry, and Augustus Prew, all of whom have been rumored to be appearing in the series, have now officially joined. A special shoutout is in order for Fellowship Of Fans, who expertly pieced together the theory that Prew had joined The Lord Of The Rings just a few weeks ago. By a truly bizarre coincidence, Benjamin Walker, the husband of actress Kaya Scodelario, is also among the newly announced cast-members: Scodelario, of course, was recently believed to have been cast in the series, although that turned out to be untrue. But she now has a connection to the show anyway, so that’s actually pretty cool.

The new batch of casting also includes a number of BIPOC actors, including Ghanaian-American actress Cynthia Addai-Robinson (star of Spartacus, Arrow, and Power, and now among The Lord Of The Rings‘ most well-known, mainstream, stars); Jamaican-English comedian Lenny Henry; Sri Lankan stage actress Thusitha Jayasundera; Māori-Niuean-Samoan actor Alex Tarrant; actress Sara Zwangobani; and actress Maxine Cunliffe. The commitment to hiring a diverse, multi-ethnic cast is admirable.

Additionally, the cast now includes Ian Blackburn, Christopher Chapman, Anthony Crum, Trystan Gravelle, Fabian McCallum, Geoff Morrell (who has a very impressive beard; if I were in the business of clickbait, I would already be theorizing that he’s playing Gandalf, even though Gandalf doesn’t appear in Middle-earth until the Third Age), Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Peter Tait (who played Shagrat and a Corsair of Umbar in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy), and Leon Wadham. If I learn anything particularly interesting about any of these actors’ backgrounds and/or past film credits, I will be sure to update this post accordingly, although it seems most of them are either complete unknowns or hail from a background in theatre.

We will, of course, be breaking all of this down in the near future, as I begin to compose my thoughts on who each actor could be playing, etc., but for now this is the breaking news – and exciting news indeed! It’s been a long time since The Lord Of The Rings‘ official social media accounts have posted anything (the last occasion being a tribute to the late Sir Ian Holm), and we’ve all been growing very impatient over here in the Tolkien fandom.

So what do you think? Do you recognize any of these newly-announced actors, and if so, do you like their work? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

May 22, 2020

More Actors Join Amazon’s “Lord Of The Rings” Cast!

Once again, the wonderful folks over at Redanian Intelligence have brought us a great new story to discuss while we wait for Amazon Prime’s The Lord Of The Rings to resume filming in New Zealand. The series’ production, which began in February, was halted midway through March due to coronavirus concerns, and many of the actors and crew members associated with the project have returned home until further notice, or are sheltered in quarantine in New Zealand. Restrictions on filming were recently lifted in that country, allowing the series to start up again soon – but so far, we haven’t heard any word of when that will be, or how new safety measures will affect the production.

However, we do have this new bit of Lord Of The Rings casting – plus two possible character name reveals for actors already attached to the series. And just like old times, I’ll break it all down for you, as well as give you my thoughts on the situation.

Anson Boon Lord Of The Rings

themediaeye.com

It appears that English actor Anson Boon has joined the project – though his role is still unclear. Redanian Intelligence notes that he easily be playing an elf due to his very defined, somewhat “ethereal” features. I agree with that assessment: Boon’s resume is still small and mostly limited to British TV and stage performances (outside of an appearance in Sam Mendes’ war drama 1917, a breakout hit with critics), so I don’t have much to work with when trying to determine who he could be playing, but I’ll take a guess anyway – let’s mark him down as a possibility for Glorfindel. This character, an Elf from the books and left out of all of Peter Jackson’s movies, plays a significant role in the Second Age of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, when this series is supposed to be set – thousands of years before the events of Lord Of The Rings – depending on which version of Tolkien’s canon you prefer to regard as definitive. As Glorfindel is depicted in the books, “his hair was of shining gold, his face fair and young and fearless and full of joy; his eyes were bright and keen, and his voice like music”. It’s a fairly vague description, but it’s enough for me to go on – and I just really want to see Glorfindel in this series, so forgive me if I grasp at straws.

Ben Fransham Lord Of The Rings — allstarbio.com

Next up, we have Ben Fransham, a New Zealand actor who, like many of the country’s citizens, worked on Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies – Fransham played an elf in the first trilogy, as well as orcs in both. His casting makes him the first actor from Jackson’s films to cross over into Amazon Prime’s adaptation of the Middle-earth saga, but his role will likely be fairly small. Additionally, he is now a stunt performer, which may be another reason why he has joined Amazon’s series. If I had to take a guess, I’d wager he will once again be wearing orc prosthetics when we see him onscreen.

So those are the castings, but Redanian Intelligence didn’t stop there – they also informed us that both Simon Merrells and Megan Richards, both of whom were cast in The Lord Of The Rings earlier this year, have character names added to their official actor CV’s. Redanian Intelligence cites this as reason to believe they may be official character names, and they may well be, but I’m wary to come to that conclusion – possibly because I’m wary of the names themselves. Merrells is listed as “Trevyn”, and Richards as “May”, and neither name seems to fit particularly well in Tolkien’s extensive network of languages. May, in particular, feels much too modern for the ancient setting – and it has a hobbit-y sound to it that makes me very nervous, considering that hobbits are among the characters I have no desire to see in Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings.

What do you think of these casting announcements, and the names revealed? Do they encourage you, or not? For me, personally, I’m a little nervous about those names in particular, but I’m also keeping an open mind. Share your own thoughts, theories and opinions in the comments below!

January 25, 2020

Simon Merrells Cast In Amazon’s “Lord Of The Rings”!

Amazon Prime recently announced the main cast for their upcoming Lord Of The Rings prequel adaptation (a multi-talented fellowship of fifteen, all of whom seem like admirable and interesting people), but now, with their production start-date inching closer, it’s time for them to start casting the smaller roles: recurring characters, guest stars, that sort of thing. Simon Merrells is the first such actor to be cast, according to new reporting.

Merrells, best known for his work on the TV series Spartacus (and for his brief but hilarious role on another Amazon Prime series, Good Omens), will supposedly be joining the cast of the epic fantasy in a recurring role: unsurprisingly, we don’t have a character name to attach to his face just yet, nor do we know how many episodes he will appear in. But that’s never stopped me before, and it’s not enough to stop me now from taking a wild shot in the dark and throwing out a guess for who I think Merrells could portray in the first season of Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings.

The character who came to mind immediately, after taking a long, hard look at Merrells’ long, hard face, was Círdan the Shipwright. Círdan is by no means a pivotal figure in the histories of the Second Age of Middle-earth, when this series takes place, but he is still just important enough to warrant popping up from time to time: he was one of the three Elven Ringbearers, and throughout the Second Age he wore on his hand Narya, the Ring of Fire – a responsibility he doesn’t seem to have ever exploited, as there’s no record of him ever using the Ring (and as soon as the Third Age rolled around, he took the first chance he got and passed it off to Gandalf). In this Age, he mostly stayed put in the peaceful country of Lindon, where he was probably a close confidante of the Elven king Gil-galad. He also started construction on the Grey Havens, which would later serve as the Elven peoples’ last escape-route from Middle-earth in times of war and hardship. There, at the Havens, he was probably the guardian of one of the palantíri seeing stones (which technically was housed a couple miles away at Elostirion, but close enough to still conceivably be within his sphere of influence). He stood by Isildur and Elrond on the slopes of Mount Doom after the first defeat of Sauron, and presumably backed Elrond up when the latter tried to convince Isildur not to take the One Ring. He’s a character who stands on the margins of this world’s history, watching events unfold with a patient, foreseeing eye, but rarely getting involved in the action. In other words, he’s not going to be around often in the series, but when he does show up, it’ll probably be for big, dramatic moments.

And of course, Merrells matches his physical description well enough: Círdan is written to be an old Elf, still noble and majestic, but weathered and worn-down a little from the weight of his burdens and the pain he has seen. Merrells, with his gaunt features and deep-set eyes, looks almost exactly like the character – I say “almost”, because Círdan is supposed to have a long grizzled beard, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem for Merrells, who has grown a decent-sized beard before for multiple roles.

So that’s who I think Simon Merrells could play in the Amazon Prime series. Who do you think he’s playing, and what do you think of the casting? Share your thoughts, theories and opinions in the comments below!