David Farnor | On 31, May 2024

Tom Bombadil is heading to our screens this summer, with the character set to make an appearance in The Rings of Power.

None other than Rory Kinnear (James Bond films, The Imitation Game) will step into the blue coat and yellow boots of the fan-favourite character from The Lord of the Rings. Given his hand in so many key moments of the larger story, the character’s absence from other on-screen depictions of Middle-earth has often been the topic of robust conversation.

Now, showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay have confirmed that Kinnear is bringing the iconic character to life in Season 2 of Amazon’s fantasy epic.

“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.”

Payne adds: “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. 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 embraced the opportunity: “There’s this sense of huge experience, huge openness, huge empathy, and having gone through so much that Bombadil knows it’s the small things that are important. That felt actually quite domestic, felt quite reachable in terms of my understanding of who he was.”

He’s described as a “figure of unknown origin 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”.

You can see him in action on 29th August when Season 2 premieres on Amazon Prime Video. In the meantime, you can see the trailer for the show’s return here.

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