The Hobbit Tosses a Dwarf-Load of Casting News
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?Mostly about dwarves, but the big news is actually that Cate Blanchett is returning as Galadriel. This is noteworthy not that Blanchett wouldn’t want to take part in The Hobbit and earn a fat paycheck, but that Galadriel doesn’t show up in the original Hobbit book at all. Obviously, Jackson is either adding scenes — since this will be two movies, this isn’t that shocking — or replacing some of The Hobbit‘s elf-bits in Rivendell to be set in Lorien with Galadriel. I assume the latter would freak you purists out more, but correct me if I’m wrong.
As for the rest of the casting news, they’ve confirmed ex-Doctor Who doctor Sylvester McCoy as Radagast, and announced Ken Stott as Balin, New Zealand actors Jed Brophy as Nori and William Kircher as Bifur, Ryan Gage as Drogo Baggins, and finally Mikael Persbrandt as the shape-shifting Beorn.
But what I want to talk about is Hobbit casting news that happened back in October that has just now dawned on me, because I am kind of a moron. The previous dwarf casting included Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield, Aidan Turner as Kili, Rob Kazinsky as Fili, Graham McTavish as Gloin, John Callin as Oin, Peter Hambleton as Gloin, Stephen Hunter as Bombur and Mark Hadlow as Dori. It was a mess of British and Kiwi actors I hadn’t heard of and the dwarves’ names were so distractingly silly (as they’ve always been) that I didn’t think any more about it. And then today, when I was researching this news (yes, really!!!) someone had a pic of Aidan Turner next to the casting announcement and I suddenly realized why his name sounded a little familiar to me.
He’s the vampire in BBC’s Being Human.
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?Holy shit. This clash of nerd properties freaks me out, but not as much as wondering how the immensely good-looking Turner will play a Tolkien dwarf, who generally look… battle-hardened, let’s say. Turner is a fucking sexy man. I’m not saying I’m hot for him, but I understand his appeal; if Ms. Robot came home and said she’d cheated on me with Aidan Turner, I’d have to shrug and give her a high five, because come on. Seeing that first pic of him in costume is going to blow my mind. (Via First Showing)
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.