The upcoming The Lord of the Rings TV show will not just be all white, according to Sir Lenny Henry. The Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV show adaptation is scheduled to release in September 2022 on Prime Video. While the show has been in the works for years and is highly-anticipated, it is believed to be one of the most expensive television series ever made as far as production costs and personnel are concerned. 

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British comedian Sir Lenny Henry was all praises for the show recently and lauded the additional diversity in the show, particularly with the inclusion of black hobbits. The 63-year-old discussed things about the show and his role in it with BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live. Bleeding Cool reported, “Henry spoke about the differences between the show and the film series, and how there will be a greater focus on diversity and female empowerment in this adaptation.” 

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Here’s what he said, “I’m a Harfoot, because JRR Tolkien, who was also from Birmingham, suddenly there were black hobbits, I’m a black hobbit, it’s brilliant, and what’s notable about this run of the books, its a prequel to the age that we’ve seen in the films, its about the early days of the Shire and Tolkien’s environment, so we’re an indigenous population of Harfoots, we’re hobbits but we’re called Harfoots, we’re multi-cultural, we’re a tribe not a race, so we’re black, asian and brown, even Maori types within it.”

Even though the series is yet to premier on Amazon, a lot is already known about it even a year before its release. The Lord of the Rings TV show will be set 1,000 years before the events of the movies. This is done in order to allow the writers to explore new stories with characters that audiences haven’t come across yet.