The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is currently shooting its second season, and as expected, the Middle-earth adaptation is only growing larger in scale and onboarding more talent. Seven new actors are set to join the ensemble, six of which will be portraying new characters and one regrettably replacing a much beloved season one antagonist.
Per an official press release, Gabriel Akuwudike, Ben Daniels, Yasen ‘Zates’ Atour, Amelia Kenworthy, Nia Towle, and Nicholas Woodeson are joining the cast, while Sam Hazeldine is replacing Joseph Mawle as Adar in season two.
Akuwudike is best known for his role in FX’s War of the Worlds, while most folks recognize Atour as the Witcher Coen from another popular fantasy show on Netflix. Ben Daniels is Walter Sampson from The Crown, and Sam Hazeldine is a television veteran thanks to Peaky Blinders and The Sandman. Amelia Kenworthy is a new talent right off the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Nia Towle’s latest role involves the Netflix original Persuasion. We can’t even begin to list Nicholas Woodeson’s credits, but he’s also an industry veteran with a career spanning four decades.
As for who each of these new actors could be portraying, the Rings of Power fandom is already speculating hard and coming up with a few names.
Folks seem to think Ben Daniels is portraying Cirdan the Shipwright, while Amelia Kenworthy is being associated with either Celebrian, Galadriel and Celeborn’s daughter, or Isildur’s unnamed wife.
Much like the rest of them, Yasen Atour could be bringing any one of the thousand characters from the Second Age to life, but he could also be the perfect candidate for Khamul, who is a Nazgul from the region of Rhun, which the Stranger and Nori are visiting in season 2.
That leaves us with Gabriel Akuwudike, Nia Tole, and Nicholas Woodeson, but your guess there is as good as ours. That being said, it is highly likely one of Daniels, Atour, or Gabriel is portraying Galadriel’s husband Celeborn, who is almost guaranteed to appear in the Prime show after being casually name-dropped in the penultimate episode.
These seven are probably not the only actors to join The Rings of Power in the near future, so stay tuned for more updates.