Lee Pace and Dean O’Gorman in The Hobbit as Thranduil and Fili

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Hey, hey, hey, Middle Earthlings! Are you ready to return to the land of Tolkien? Over at Peter Jackson’s Facebook page, we learned the latest in casting news for the prequel to Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit. Allow us to share the visionary director’s words:

I’m very pleased to be welcoming two new cast members to our team.

Dean O’Gorman will be playing Fili. Dean’s a terrific Kiwi actor, who I am thrilled to be working with. He’s recently been in an excellent TV series down here called “The Almighty Johnsons”, and I should let fans of that show know that our shooting schedule allows Dean to continue with a second series next year. Dean will be joining us next week.

I’m also pleased to announce that Lee Pace will be playing the Elven King Thranduil. Casting these Tolkien stories is very difficult, especially the Elven characters, and Lee has always been our first choice for Thranduil. He’s going to be great. We loved his performance in a movie called “The Fall” a few years ago, and have been hoping to work with him since. When we were first discussing who would be right for Thranduil, Lee came into mind almost immediately.

It’s been a great week, and I’m looking forward to the next few. It’s going to be interesting…

More soon.

Cheers,

Peter J

Today’s news follows word about one actor departing the production and some great stories about who will return and who is new to the franchise.