The Lord of the Rings TV show will have hobbits – but they're not called hobbits

(Image credit: New Line Cinema)

The Lord of the Rings TV show, titled The Rings of Power, takes us back to the Second Age of Middle Earth. Tolkien noted that during this time period – before the events of The Hobbit and the main Lord of the Rings trilogy – that hobbits were scarcely recognized by anyone. In fact, they had done nothing notable to impact the worlds of men, elves, and dwarves.

Some Ring-heads have been worried that hobbits will appear in the new TV show from Amazon, which would be seemingly difficult to justify with Tolkien's work. However, a new article by Vanity Fair reveals that hobbits will appear in the series, but not as we know them.

"One of the very specific things the texts say is that hobbits never did anything historic or noteworthy before the Third Age,” showrunner Patrick McKay said. "But really, does it feel like Middle-earth if you don’t have hobbits or something like hobbits in it?"

Instead of Bagginses and Boffins, the series will feature harfoots, one of three breeds of hobbits, along with Stoors and Fallohides. The harfoots are ancestors of Frodo and Bilbo, and they do not live in the Shire. The report details how McKay and co-showrunner JD Payne have constructed "a pastoral harfoot society that thrives on secrecy and evading detection so that they can play out a kind of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead story [an absurdist play about two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet] in the margins of the bigger quests."

One story will see two harfoots, played by Megan Richards and Markella Kavenagh, meet a mysterious lost man. There's also note of Sir Lenny Henry playing a harfoot elder. And if you were worried that the harfoots will not get enough screen time, the showrunners pitched the series as 50 hours of television to Amazon executives. So, even with the show balancing 22 different stories, there's still time for some wholesome, harfooted action.

Thanks to the Vanity Fair piece, there are plenty of new Lord of the Rings TV show images out there, showing characters in full garb, and even Galadriel in armor.

Jack Shepherd is the former Senior Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar. Jack used to work at The Independent as a general culture writer before specializing in TV and film for the likes of GR+, Total Film, SFX, and others. You can now find Jack working as a freelance journalist and editor.