The Rings Of Power Season 2 Seemingly Casts An MCU Vet As Orc Warlord
Contains potential spoilers for "The Rings of Power" Season 2
Everyone is sucked into the MCU at one point or another. From bigwig Hollywood-ites right down to actors just getting started, there seems to be no end to the number of individuals who manage to land a role in Marvel's ever-growing universe ... and then pop up again somewhere else down the road. The latest of these connections comes via an unconfirmed report of Mike Wood making the leap from the MCU to Amazon Studios' "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."
Wood is a trained actor and stuntman who has landed big and small roles in countless productions. This includes "Bridgerton," where he played a "brothel patron," and "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald," where he showed up in an uncredited role as the "Circus Beastmaster." Wood has also spent time behind the camera as a digital imaging technician, editor, camera operator, and even a director and producer.
The man has done it all, and this year he leveraged his vast array of skills to land a role as Crystal Man in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." According to IMDB, Wood's portrayal is uncredited in the official movie. However, the actor received formal recognition for the role in "Marvel Studios: Assembled."
After his brief foray into the MCU, it appears that Wood is jumping universes. According to yet-to-be-verified reports, he's going to be in Amazon Studios' Middle-earth series.
What kind of role might Wood have in Middle-earth?
Again, to make it painfully clear, we're working on unsubstantiated claims here. However, Mike Wood's IMDB profile was recently updated to indicate he has an upcoming role as an "Orc Warlord" in Season 2 of "The Rings of Power." The site has Wood listed to appear in all eight episodes — although that information is often updated closer to a release date. Fan site Fellowship of Fans also shared the rumor.
If Wood really is playing a recurring role as an Orc Warlord in Season 2, it would align with the speculation we've previously heard. A scoop in mid-June purported there will be a lot of violence, cool battle set pieces, and even a berserker Orc in the upcoming season. Another rumor claimed day battles were being filmed (bad news for the sunlight-loathing Orcs), and a leak in July stated multiple main characters fight a two-episode battle.
Regardless of how accurate these rumors are, there's little doubt we're looking at a pretty active and violent second season of showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay's Middle-earth series. Galadriel actress Morfydd Clark even went on record in May, saying there will be "quite a lot of new villains" in "Rings of Power" Season 2.
Maybe Wood will be one of these gnarly new faces. Then again, maybe he'll surprise us by popping into the story as a man, an elf, or even a Halfling.