Amazon’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings series is out one actor from its ensemble cast. Tom Budge announce through his Instagram account that he has left the series as Amazon wants to “go in another direction” with his character.
“It is with great sadness that I am writing to tell you I have departed Amazon’s Lord of the Rings television series,” he said in his Instagram statement. “After recently seeing the first episodes shot over the last year Amazon has decided to go in another direction with the character I was portraying… I must thank the creative team for their encouragement towards trying something that I believed was new, exciting and beautiful. And I sincerely thank the extraordinary cast and crew for their love, support and friendship over what has been a very difficult and unusual experience. Alas, some things just cannot be.”
Like much of the cast, there is no word on who he was playing. With his exit, it is unknown if Amazon will simply recast Budge or write and edit his character out entirely.
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings is being developed by JD Payne and Patrick McKay (Star Trek Beyond) with J.A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) directing the pilot. Production was delayed due to the ongoing health crisis as well as Amazon giving an early renewal to the series with production going on an extended hiatus so they could begin planning the second season. When production resumes later this month in West Auckland, New Zealand, it will do so with back-to-back filming of seasons one and two.
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Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.
Lord of the Rings will star Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Lenny Henry, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Simon Merrells, Geoff Morrell, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker and Sara Zwangobani.
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