Welsh speaking actors revealed as elf and dwarf in Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings series

Two Welsh speaking actors have been revealed in their respective roles in Amazon’s new The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series, which is rumoured to have a budget of over half a billion pounds.

Owain Arthur will play dwarf Prince Durin IV of Khazad-dûm, while Morfydd Clark takes the starring role of elf Galadriel in the series. A third Welsh speaker, Trystan Gravelle, also has an unspecified role in the series, and Lloyd Owen (London-born to Welsh parents) also part of the cast.

The roles were revealed exclusively in an article in Vanity Fair today.

It had previously been confirmed that the show would take place thousands of years before the film series, during the so-called Second Age, when the Rings of Power were forged by Sauron.

The first series was shot in New Zealand but will shift to filming in the UK for the second series, which has already been commissioned.

Morfydd Clarke, who is from Penarth, had previously said that homesickness had still had an impact on her during the pandemic.

“You know they say you’re only as happy as your unhappiest child?” she said. “I know I must make the most of being here. But you can’t. This isn’t quite my world and I know that my world isn’t doing this.”

She added however that having two other Welsh-speaking members in the cast, and a costume designer who spoke Welsh, had helped her feel at home in New Zealand.

Filming wrapped on August 2nd. The highly-anticipated epic fantasy series will debut on the streamer on Sept. 2, 2022, with new episodes dropping weekly after that.