We heard some rumors, but they are rumors no more as Tom Bombadil is confirmed to be in The Rings of Power Season 2 played by Rory Kinnear. The information comes from an exclusive article and first look at Kinnear in character from Vanity Fair.
If you’ve only ever watched the movies and never read the books, you may not recognise the name Tom Bombadil, but book fans will know him very well. Perhaps Tolkien’s most enigmatic character, Bombadil was cut from both the Peter Jackson directed movies and the Ralph Bakshi animated adaptation.
Honestly, whilst some book fans always bemoaned the absence of Tom, I always understood it. Imagine if you will that before the Hobbits came across the Nazgul whilst fleeing to Bree, they instead took a side step and spent a couple of days with Tom and his Goldberry in Tom’s house. Where Tom sings lots of songs and things are fairly merry for a time. It works in a book, but for the pacing of the story in the movies, I see why it was cut.
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As per the trade;
‘The Rings of Power, the Amazon Prime Video series based on Tolkien’s ancient history of his fantasy realm, will break that tradition of exclusion and finally feature Tom Bombadil—along with his jolly songs and his flamboyant wardrobe—when its second season begins August 29. Bombadil was described in Tolkien’s books as “older than the old,” a benevolent entity who began life around the time all life began, so his existence in this earlier era, thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, fits within the canon established by the author.’
‘In a 1937 letter to his publisher, mulling a possible sequel to The Hobbit, Tolkien described Bombadil as “the spirit of the (vanishing) Oxford and Berkshire countryside.” The author bristled at the notion that he wrote in allegory, but it’s clear he saw Bombadil as nature personified—right up to the character’s ambivalence about interfering in the larger world around him. That left showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay to figure out exactly how he might turn up in their show—and why.’
Tolkien always refused to give too much information on old Tom. I think he liked that Tom was a bit of an enigma in the story and his origins mysterious. For one, unlike pretty much any other character in the series, Tom is not affected at all by the One Ring. He can touch it with no ill affects and he doesn’t really understand it’s importance.
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“There’s a reason why he hasn’t been in prior adaptations, because in some ways he’s sort of an anti-dramatic character,” Payne tells Vanity Fair for this exclusive first look. “He’s not a character who has a particularly strong agenda. He observes drama, but largely doesn’t participate in it. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the characters kind of just go there and hang out for a while, and Tom drops some knowledge on them.” Adds McKay: “Knowledge that’s not particularly relevant to anything that they’re doing or about to do.”
‘“He can be a force for good, but he is challenging to integrate dramatically in that he doesn’t have an agenda. He’s not driving forward and pushing people to arrive at any particular end,” Payne says.’
“He has no clear dramatic function that would justify his inclusion in a really great movie adaptation. He’s whimsical and magical, and almost verging on silly. But also has the wisdom of the ages and the music of the spheres and deep emotional wells of ancient history and myth, and his conception and function are tied to Norse myths and have deep roots in European fairy tale,” McKay says. “So weirdly, he’s kind of the most Lord of the Rings thing in Lord of the Rings, and also the first thing you would cut if you were adapting it as a film. But we have the advantage of a television show, and hence we are going to find a way to tap into that.”
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“We started thinking, What does he care about? And how can that be a doorway to drama?” Payne says. “We know he cares about the natural world. And we know he is a helper. He’s not going to push you, but he will help you. And so, traditionally, he lives in this place called the Withywindle, which is this sort of almost enchanted forest.”
However, it will be in Rhun that we meet Bombadil in the series, not the West.
‘For the series, Payne and McKay took the liberty of giving Bombadil a second home, on the outskirts of a region called Rhûn. “In our story, he has gone out to the lands of Rhûn, which we learn used to be sort of Edenic and green and beautiful, but now is sort of a dead wasteland,” Payne says. “Tom has gone out there to see what’s happened as he goes on his various wanderings.”’
“When he finally crosses paths with the Stranger, you could say he has a desire to try to keep the destruction that has happened there from spreading to his beloved lands in the West. He nudges the Stranger along his journey, which he knows will eventually protect the larger natural world that he cares about. So I’d say our Tom Bombadil is slightly more interventionist than you see in the books, but only by 5% or 10%.”
Check the source article linked above for more including how Rory Kinnear prepared for the role, plus images of Kinnear in character meeting with The Stranger. However, you can get a smaller peek at the character in this social media post from VF below.
Tom Bombadil, J.R.R. Tolkien’s peculiar ‘Lord of the Rings’ character, will finally come to life in ‘The Rings of Power’ when its second season begins August 29.https://t.co/1PXZIMHSIi
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) May 29, 2024
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The question of whether this is a good idea or not is hard to say. Canon wise, it is very clear that no matter how far back you go, you could meet Tom. Whilst in LOTR Tom stays only in his own lands, the text does hint that this was not always the case. It’s this hint the showrunners are running with for Season 2.
It does sound like the show won’t try to answer any questions about Tom’s nature, which is frankly priority number one. After all, it would be arrogance supreme for someone to attempt to explain a character beyond that which the creator was ever willing to divulge. However, as with all shows, we will judge what we see when we see it.
What do you think as Tom Bombadil is confirmed to be in The Rings of Power Season 2 played by Rory Kinnear? Thoughts below as usual.
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