Unfortunately, Poulter left due to “scheduling conflicts” three months later, though we wouldn’t be surprised if the Tolkien Estate made him leave because he might make people think a digitally de-aged Hugo Weaving is reprising his role from the movies. Plus, if you’re paying $1 billion for a show, wouldn’t you want a lead who has the decency of scheduling his conflicts with people instead of springing them unprompted? Foolish decision, Tolkien kids.
Related: 6 Movies Based on a True Story That Left Out Important Stuff
The Cast And Crew Got Stuck In New Zealand For Almost Two Years
When Amazon and the Tolkien Estate signed that deal in 2017, one of the terms was that production of the show had to start within two years. And sure enough, by 2019, the writing was underway, and everyone was ready to hit the ground running and shoot two seasons back to back in 2020. And then … 2020 happened.
The around 800 members of the cast and crew had completed 25 days of shooting in New Zealand when they were told to stay home for a few weeks while that pesky new virus came and went. A month, tops. They ended up being trapped in the country for almost two years. Now, there are worse places to be than New Zealand during the pandemic, but this still meant that the actors (half of which were British) couldn’t see their families or water their plants for way too long. We’re assuming at least some of them came back home in late 2021 speaking like Wellington Paranormal characters.
The upside is that New Zealand’s closed borders meant that Amazon execs couldn’t just fly into the set and give notes like, “Where are the dongs? This still isn’t enough dongs.” The downside to that upside is that this lack of executive meddling contributed to Amazon’s dramatic decision to move the entire production out of New Zealand and into England for the second season, leaving much of the crew — who had become a “fellowship” during the long lockdown — heartbroken.
On the other hand, since the movies were also shot in New Zealand (with much of the same crew members), that’s one less resemblance for the Tolkien Estate to worry about. Curious. No, we’re not saying they manufactured the virus to get their belated revenge on Peter Jackson, but only because we value our lives.
Follow Maxwell Yezpitelok‘s heroic effort to read and comment on every ’90s Superman comic at Superman86to99.tumblr.com.
Thumbnail: Amazon Studios, New Line Cinema