Australian actor Tom Budge leaves Lord of the Rings show! Over the weekend actor Budge took to social media to announce that he had left Amazon’s new untitled Lord of the Rings show. The statement was made on Instagram, though no longer seems to be available, Luckily I managed to get this image from a thread on Reddit.
First off I should say that currently no one knows what character Budge was playing. Was this a known Tolkien character or someone made up for the show? If it was one of Tolkien’s characters, it would suggest a possible recast for me. If a show only character, they may just decide to write the character out completely.
Budge’s post could mean that either Amazon decided to replace him, or write him out, or reduce his role. It’s not clear, but the wording would make me doubt the latter and hang my hat on one of the former two options.
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I’ve said it many times, but this is such a tricky project for Amazon. More so even than the likes of the Star Wars prequels and we know how those turned out. On one side you have crazy Tolkien geeks, like me, who know the history of the period being filmed here. On the other, you need to turn this history text book into an engaging show. A show which will resonate with fans of the movies alone. The Akallabeth, which is Tolkien’s Second Age history is also by far his shortest work. Far more detail was put into the 587 years of the First Age than the 3441 years of the Second Age. As I said, this is no easy task and perhaps it is a simple as a newly created character that didn’t work for the tone of the show?
We also have to remember that weirdly something similar happened on The Lord of the Rings movies. Actor Stuart Townsend was replaced well after filming had begun by Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn. No one is suggesting Budge’s character is as important as the role of Aragorn here. However, the important point’s that making the change was the correct decision, Townsend was far too young to play Aragorn. Therefore Budge’s exit from this show may well be the right call?
Leave any thoughts below as Tom Budge leaves Lord of the Rings show for unknown reasons.
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