Lord of the Rings TV Series Casts Game of Thrones’ Robert Aramayo for Lead Role

The recently vacated lead role on Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings TV series has gone to Game of Thrones actor Robert Aramayo.

Robert Aramayo as Ned Stark on Game of Thrones; HBO
HBO

While Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings television series (which is already set for Season 2,) seems to be tapping into the momentum of quasi-feudal themes left behind by Game of Thrones, it may have just cemented such a notion with the casting of series alumnus Robert Aramayo for a lead role.

An English actor, Aramayo – best known for his 2016-2017 Game of Thrones flashback-scenes stint as a young version of Ned Stark (Sean Bean’s ill-fated Season 1 protagonist) – will play a lead role in The Lord of the Rings previously filled by the recently-departed Will Poulter, as Deadline reports. While details on his character are still sparse, the role is said to be heroic, tentatively referred to as “Beldor.”

Aramayo recently appeared on a second season episode of Netflix’s Mindhunter, and, amongst other upcoming projects, will be seen in April-set horror thriller Antebellum and September-scheduled prequel The King’s Man. He will join a LOTR cast co-led by the show’s first acquisition, Markella Kavenagh, which consists of Maxim Baldry, Joseph Mawle, Ema Horvath and a recent addition, Morfyyd Clark, who will play the role of Elven sorceress Galadriel, who was famously played by Cate Blanchett in director Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies.

Further Reading: The Best Moments in The Lord of the Rings Movies

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Interestingly, the casting of Aramayo is just the latest added presence from Thrones, with the LOTR series having cast Mawle (who played Benjen Stark, brother to Bean’s Ned), and tapped the talent of scribe Bryan Cogman, who, having written crucial GoT episodes, joined the writing team as a consultant.

The series, which takes place during Middle Earth’s Second Age (thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings,) takes shape under the creative purview of showrunners/executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. They are joined by Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom director J.A. Bayona, who helms the first two episodes, and executive produces alongside producer partner Belén Atienza. Also onboard as executive producers are Lindsey Weber, GoT alum Bruce Richmond, Gene Kelly and Sharon Tal Yguado. Additionally, serving as writer/executive producers are Gennifer Hutchinson, Jason Cahill and Justin Doble.

There’s no word yet on when to expect Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings TV series. Production recently wrapped for the Bayona-directed duo of debut episodes, after which the series went into a hiatus to further plan things out after its Season 2 confirmation. Of course, we’ll keep you apprised of all the developments.

Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.