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Tom Bombadil’s introduction to the screen has been a long time coming for fans of The Lord of the Rings. First introduced by J.R.R. Tolkien in the 1930s, the character didn’t make the cut in Peter Jackson’s movies.
Since then, it’s been a point of concern that we might never see the unique character in live-action. Thankfully, The Rings of Power solves this in its second season, casting James Bond actor Rory Kinnear as Tolkien’s delightfully mysterious character.
However, the actor tells GamesRadar+ that he’s not surprised it’s taken so long to get Bombadil on screen. "Well, I guess with the other adaptations, I think Peter Jackson said it, it doesn't necessarily drive the story on, particularly in the narrative of it," he tells us. "But in the pages and in people's imaginations, he is this incredible character that has so much knowledge and so much sense of fun and so much life about him, as well as the whole of humanity and history and the earth. This is sort of representative of all that Earth is, and Middle-earth."
The Rings of Power, on the other hand, has the benefit of being more long-form storytelling, Kinnear adds: "Obviously over multi-season episodic TV, you’ve got more time to investigate those stories. In the way that [showrunners] J.D. [Payne] and Patrick [McKay] are telling the story, they're able to create a role for him that isn't necessarily the one that he has in the books. So whilst they're using that character, they are using him in a different way to how Tolkien did."
"Even though he might not be present in all the scenes in the books, actually, he's always sort of there because he's so extraordinary," Weyman explains. "He's sort of keeping you company on your journey through the books and I think that's a great thing about Tom on this journey for The Stranger. His presence is so extraordinary that even when you're not with him, he's sort of in your mind because of how he's interacted with you."
Kinnear adds: "And how Tolkien writes him – he’s so open-ended and opaque in some ways that people are able to project so much onto him. I think again, that's his power, both in terms of a reader's imagination, but also the potential in the interactions with The Stranger, and his role going through The Rings of Power as well."
The Rings of Power season 2 begins with a three-episode premiere on August 29. For more, check out our guide to the best shows on Amazon Prime Video.
