LOTR: The Rings Of Power Adds Jamie Campbell Bower And Eddie Marsan To Season 3 Cast

When it comes to news about The Rings Of Power, here at Empire we adopt what could be called a Gollum-like approach: we wants it, we needs it, we must have the preciousss. Handily then, just a fortnight after we learned that Season 3 of Amazon's billion dollar fantasy epic has officially been greenlit at Prime Video, today has brought with it word of the upcoming series' first two newcomers to the cast. Per Deadline's reporting, Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower (yes, he of Vecna fame) and Supacell's Eddie Marsan will be making their way to Middle-earth when J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay's Lord Of The Rings prequel returns.

Officially, as you'd expect, Bower and Marsan's roles in the series ahead are being kept hush-hush as pre-production on the show's return ramps up, but Deadline's reporting offers up some room for speculation. Set to join as a series regular, Bower's character is allegedly Season 3's biggest new addition, "a handsome high-born knight" codenamed Arlen in circulated casting info. Marsan on the other hand will have a recurring role, reportedly as a Scottish-accented character "with a brother." Now, far be it from us to fuel speculative fires, but could Bower be playing Galadriel's as-yet-unseen husband Celeborn? Or even uber-powerful elf Glorfindel, who canonically returned to Middle-earth in the Second Age when Sauron was forging the One Ring? As we learned from the third season announcement, Charlie Vickers' Sauron is going to be getting his smithing act together when we see him next... And as for Marsan's newcomer, codenamed Dromm, it wouldn't be wild to propose that the table seems to be getting set for Durin's oft-mentioned brother to enter the fray and advance his claim to Khazad-dûm.

At this stage, we don't even know who from the series' primary cast will be coming back for the season ahead, let alone the parts that those joining the show will play. But with Season 3 due to start filming at Shepperton Studios in April, and Payne and McKay having already planned the series' arc far enough to state they know what the final shot will be, we should imagine we'll be finding out exactly what's next on our journey to the Last Alliance of Elves and Men soon enough. In the meantime, we're off to Tom Bombadil's for a sing-song and a recap of the Season 2 finale. Now let the song begin, let us sing together...