For the past few years, Jamie Campbell Bower has been in all-out villain mode – as Stranger Things’ monstrous Vecna, he flayed minds, bodies and souls alike. But as he enters another mammoth streaming series, Bower is switching things up. He’s one of the new cast additions to Season 3 of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, entering the Tolkien-verse in a role that has, until now, been kept tightly under wraps (and much rumoured-over by fans). Empire can finally confirm Bower’s role: meet Celeborn, Elf lord and warrior.
And, notably, the husband of Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel. The character – briefly portrayed in Peter Jackson’s films by Marton Csokas – is something of a “lover-boy”, says Bower. The anti-Vecna, then. How they introduce Celeborn – who canonically married Galadriel in the First Age, and in TROP has been apart from her for centuries – remains to be seen. But their dynamic is partly inspired by Tolkien and his wife, Edith. “This idea of longing and yearning is so pervasive in Tolkien’s relationship with Edith for the time that they were apart,” says Bower. “I really feasted on that idea. Celeborn has had to find a way to survive whilst longing for something that he so dearly loved and so dearly missed as well.” And Clark was more than game to contribute to the pair’s sparkling interplay. “She’s kind of rude to him in the books,” she chuckles. “She’s the queen! But Jamie looks exactly like how I would imagine Celeborn. He’s such an Elf.”
Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay saw hundreds of tapes for Celeborn – but even without Elf ears and the rest, it was clear that Bower had the stuff. “He has this voice that is rich and hypnotic and sonorous that feels it has the wisdom of the ages buried inside of it,” says Payne. “And then we did a chemistry read [with Clark], and instantly it just felt like he loved her so much. It felt so natural, and so organic, and so right.” In the age of Sauron, Middle-earth could use a few more lover-boys."
