EXCLUSIVE: Game Of Thrones alum Joseph Mawle is set as a lead opposite Will Poulter and Markella Kavenagh in Amazon Studios’ Lord of the Rings TV series, I have learned. Amazon had no comment.

The high-profile fantasy series, which hails from writers JD Payne and Patrick McKay and director Juan Antonio (J.A.) Bayona, is set in Middle-earth and explores new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.

No details about the characters are being revealed but it is believed that English actor Mawle will play the series’ lead villain, Oren, opposite Poulter’s young hero Beldor and female lead Tyra (Kavenagh)

Amazon cast a wide net in its talent search for the big-budget project, reading actors around the world with casting directors in the US, UK and Australia.

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The Lord of the Rings series is produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which produced the 2000s Peter Jackson trilogy. Pre-production has started, and production on the series will begin in Auckland, New Zealand in the coming months.

Mawle is known for his role on Game Of Thrones where he played Benjen Stark, a First Ranger of the Night’s Watch, the youngest brother of Eddard (Ned) Stark, and the uncle of the six Stark children: Robb, Rickon, Bran, Sansa, Arya, and Jon Snow. He represents the latest link between HBO’s fantasy mega hit and LOTR, along with GoT co-executive producer Bryan Cogman, who is consulting producer on LOTR, and former HBO EVP Production Bruce Richmond, who worked on GOT and now serves as LOTR executive producer.

Mawle received a BAFTA TV nomination for Birdsong. He recently co-starred in the BBC/Starz limited series MotherFatherSon opposite Richard Gere.

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