Production on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3 is officially underway, and with it comes a fresh wave of casting announcements. Prime Video confirmed that Andrew Richardson (Ponies) has joined the sprawling fantasy series as a series regular, with Zubin Varla (Andor) and Adam Young (Masters of the Air) set to recur.
The trio are stepping into the epic just as cameras start rolling at the show’s new production home: Shepperton Studios in the U.K. This is the third location for the series, which debuted in New Zealand and shot its second season at Bray Film Studios.
Details about the characters remain under wraps. However, speculation is already circulating that Richardson might be playing a new character described earlier in casting calls as a young sea captain in his 20s. No confirmation yet, but fans are already drawing lines between Richardson’s casting and that mysterious maritime role.
Varla, interestingly, is not completely new to The Rings of Power. He did voice work in three episodes of Season 2, which could either be a setup for his live-action appearance or something else entirely.
These additions follow earlier Season 3 casting reveals, including Stranger Things alum Jamie Campbell Bower, who joins as a series regular, and Eddie Marsan, who will recur. Bower’s character has been described as a “handsome high-born knight,” while Marsan’s is said to be “boisterous and boorish,” with a Scottish accent and a brother, which fans suspect could tie him to Prince Durin’s family tree.
J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay return as showrunners and executive producers, director Charlotte Brändström, who directs Season 3 episodes alongside Sanaa Hamri and Stefan Schwartz.
The synopsis for Season 3 reads: “Jumping forward several years from the events of season 2, season 3 takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron, as the Dark Lord seeks to craft the One Ring that will give him the edge he needs to win the war and conquer all Middle-earth at last.”
The series takes place “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.”
In Season 2, “Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will.
“Building on Season 1’s epic scope and ambition, Season 2 of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity.
“Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.”
