There’s a new elf in Mirkwood. The latest star to sign on for Andy Serkis’ The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum is none other than Furiosa herself: Anya Taylor-Joy has joined the cast. According to Variety, she will play Seren, one of the Sindar elves, who is “a trusted and lethal agent of King Thranduil.”
This character should clearly not be confused with Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), a character invented for Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies whose primary purpose was not to be lethal (despite being a military leader) but to have an awkward and ill-considered romance with Aidan Turner’s Kili. Surely this movie will not repeat Jackson’s poor choices.
Lilly is not returning for The Hunt for Gollum, but King Thranduil himself is; Lee Pace will step back into the epic robes and crowns (and elk saddles, one hopes) of that role. Presumably the film will spend some time in his Woodland Realm, which was a more lovely place before Sauron (going by a different name, of course) set himself up in a corner of it and filled it with nasties.
Taylor-Joy joins a cast that includes returning stars Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Elijah Wood as Frodo, and new-to-Middle-earth stars Kate Winslet as Marigol, Leo Woodall as the elf Halvard, and Jamie Dornan as Strider. Serkis himself will, of course, play Gollum.
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum premieres on December 17, 2027.
