{"id":5855,"date":"2026-07-14T11:30:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=5855"},"modified":"2026-07-14T11:30:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:30:27","slug":"anya-taylor-joy-hasnt-read-the-lord-of-the-rings-books-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=5855","title":{"rendered":"Anya Taylor-Joy Hasn&#8217;t Read the &#8216;Lord of the Rings&#8217; Books Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/anya-taylor-joy\/\" id=\"auto-tag_anya-taylor-joy\" data-tag=\"anya-taylor-joy\">Anya Taylor-Joy<\/a> was a strict \u201cHarry Potter\u201d fan as a child, but now, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/anya-taylor-joy-lord-of-the-rings-hunt-for-gollum-1236781874\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">having been cast in \u201cThe Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,\u201d<\/a> she\u2019s ready to dive into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI\u2019m about to read the books now, actually,\u201d Taylor-Joy told <em>Variety\u2019s Marc Malkin<\/em> at the Monday night premiere of Apple TV\u2019s \u201cLucky.\u201d \u201cSo as a child, I had a misguided idea that you could only be a \u2018Harry Potter\u2019 fan or a \u2018Lord of the Rings\u2019 fan. Nobody told me that. I just came up with that on my own. Luckily, throughout COVID, I then watched all of \u2018Lord of the Rings,\u2019 and turns out you can love both, and you should.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWhen asked about her initial reaction to getting cast in \u201cThe Hunt for Gollum,\u201d Taylor-Joy said, \u201cIt\u2019s so fun. I mean, if my tombstone can say \u2018Lethal Elf,\u2019 I feel like I did a good job on this planet. So yeah, I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"\/>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn June, it was revealed that Taylor-Joy was joining \u201cThe Hunt for Gollum\u201d as Seren, a Sindar Elf of the Woodland Realm, who is described as \u201ca trusted and lethal agent of King Thranduil.\u201d She joins fellow \u201cLOTR\u201d newcomers Kate Winslet, Leo Woodall and Jamie Dornan. Dornan is taking over the role of Aragorn for Viggo Mortensen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDirected by Andy Serkis, who will also reprise his role as Gollum, the film follows Aragorn during the time between \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d and \u201cThe Fellowship of the Ring,\u201d during which he searched for the ring-obsessed creature. Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Lee Pace (King Thranduil) are all set to return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDespite being replaced by Dornan, Serkis recently told the \u201cHappy, Sad, Confused\u201d podcast that <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/andy-serkis-viggo-mortensen-jamie-dornan-hunt-for-gollum-1236735001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mortensen is \u201cthrilled\u201d<\/a> about the direction of the film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI really, really don\u2019t want to go into it right now because I do want to save that for, you know, further down the line,\u201d Serkis said. \u201cI\u2019m gonna save all discussion about casting. Other than that, we are thrilled that Jamie\u2019s doing it. I mean, we\u2019re, you know, we\u2019re absolutely thrilled. And, by the way, so is Viggo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1234848148\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Just-for-Variety-Logo-Lockup-Headshot.pngtiw=639\" alt=\"\" width=\"639\" height=\"236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Just-for-Variety-Logo-Lockup-Headshot.png 639w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Just-for-Variety-Logo-Lockup-Headshot.png?resize=150,55 150w, https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Just-for-Variety-Logo-Lockup-Headshot.png?resize=300,111 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px\"\/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anya Taylor-Joy was a strict \u201cHarry Potter\u201d fan as a child, but now, having been cast in \u201cThe Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,\u201d she\u2019s ready to dive into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. \u201cI\u2019m about to read the books now, actually,\u201d Taylor-Joy told Variety\u2019s Marc Malkin at the Monday night premiere of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285952787.jpg?crop=0px%2C198px%2C3984px%2C2241px&resize=1000%2C563","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}