Casting Tom Bombadil For Amazon's Lord Of The Rings Show
Tom Bombadil is one of few Lord of the Rings characters around during Amazon's upcoming TV show. Who could play the mysterious forest-dweller?
If Tom Bombadil appears in Amazon's The Lord of the Rings TV series, which actors could pull off the whimsical charm and mystical musings required? In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, the Hobbit quartet of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin make a stop that Peter Jackson's movie trilogy controversially (albeit understandably) omitted. Somewhere between departing The Shire and meeting Aragorn, the Hobbits were saved by a mysterious figure called Tom Bombadil who lives in the Old Forest with his wife, Goldberry, and enjoys singing songs among the trees and critters. Even so, Bombadil isn't your typical hipster. Not only does he possess mastery over the woodland realm but, strangely, the One Ring holds no power over Bombadil whatsoever.
Our next live-action visit to Middle-earth will be Amazon's as-yet-untitled Lord of the Rings TV series. Set primarily during the Second Age, an official image showing the Two Trees of Valinor confirms a smattering of First Age tales also. This means very few Lord of the Rings characters will be alive during the show's timeline, but alongside Galadriel, Elrond and Sauron, Tom Bombadil is one of the familiar figures who could feasibly appear. Though Tolkien left Tom's origin a total mystery, the books strongly suggest he predates anything else in Middle-earth, perhaps with the exception of Treebeard.
Amazon's Lord of the Rings almost certainly won't feature Tom Bombadil in any long-term capacity, but as the protagonists venture through Middle-earth, a cameo can't be ruled out. If Tom were to drop by, which actor could tackle this unique, enigmatic Tolkien creation?
Though Tom Bombadil's description is rather vague, the Hobbits perceive him as an older man. Immediately then, casting thoughts turn toward veterans of the stage and screen, and where better to start than with Jim Broadbent? Boasting credits in everything from Moulin Rogue! and Iris to Harry Potter and Game of Thrones (by way of Teletubbies), Broadbent possesses the extreme acting range that Bombadil requires. In The Lord of the Rings, Tom flickers between a harmless imp singing ditties in the forest, to the most fearsome, powerful being in all of Middle-earth. Broadbent is perfectly capable of capturing the former, demonstrated by frivolous performances as Professor Slughorn and Blackadder's Prince Albert, but with Longford, Broadbent won awards for his difficult and engaging role as the titular real life politician. When Lord of the Rings fans picture what Tom Bombadil might've looked like in Peter Jackson's trilogy, the mental image probably isn't a million miles from a bearded Jim Broadbent.
Mysticism is a key Tom Bombadil quality. Even among J.R.R. Tolkien's world of elves, dark lords and dragons, Bombadil is a total unknown, and any actor playing him must convey that aura of magical mystery. Maybe it's just the beard, but Sir Ben Kingsley feels like someone who could capture that mystical nature. An extensive background in Shakespearean theater gives Kingsley the necessary foundation to replicate Tom Bombadil's severity, secrecy, and sorcery, while his acting experience continues Lord of the Rings tradition when casting older, magical characters - Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Christopher Lee, etc. Being a knight of the British Empire isn't a prerequisite here, but it certainly doesn't hurt.
Strengthening Kingsley's case, more recent roles have showcased his knack for surrealism - Mandarin actor Trevor Slattery in Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi & The Legends of the Ten Rings, for instance. While Tom Bombadil won't be sleeping with models or making friends with faceless animals, Slattery's silliness stands Kingsley in good stead for singing about the Withywindle to a band of barefooted Hobbits.
Jeffrey Wright was recently selected to voice The Watcher in Marvel's What If...? - a powerful, ancient character who exists quite apart from the universe around him. Those qualities would translate perfectly to Tom Bombadil in Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV show - similarly powerful, similarly ancient, and so detached from mortal life, he remained unbothered by the War of the Ring rumbling throughout the rest of Middle-earth. In Westworld, Jeffrey Wright's Bernard carried the burden of great knowledge, and in later seasons plays his cards close to his chest - more useful attributes for any aspiring Bombadil actor.
Envisioning Wright as a forest minstrel doesn't come as naturally as with Broadbent or Kingsley. That's not to say skipping through the trees lute in hand is beyond his acting repertoire, but Wright could be a front-runner if Amazon's The Lord of the Rings series opted for a grounded, less eccentric Tom Bombadil - a version that accentuated the "wise old hermit" more than the folk-y, jolly figure of Tolkien mythology.
Because of Tolkien's Tom Bombadil description, older actors are natural choices for any live-action interpretation, but Amazon needn't limit their casting pool solely to actors of a certain vintage. Since Bombadil's true nature is unknown, there's no telling how he ages, or how his appearance alters through the centuries, and the possibility of a younger Bombadil in Amazon's Second Age Lord of the Rings is perfectly possible. For a less wrinkly Tom, Doctor Who's Matt Smith represents the ideal pick.
A balance between old and young is a crucial aspect of Tom Bombadil's character. Despite his impossible years and weathered appearance, Tom's occasional spryness seems deceptively youthful to the Hobbits during their time together in The Fellowship of the Ring. After Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor regenerated into his fresh-faced exterior, Smith conveyed the age and experience of The Doctor wonderfully. He's an old man in a young body, which is exactly who Tom Bombadil could be in Amazon's Lord of the Rings. Matt Smith's fellow ex-Doctor, Peter Capaldi, deserves an honorable mention.
Known more for his comedy work in the Monty Python troupe, as well as directing the likes of Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Terry Gilliam has also enjoyed an on-screen career filled with cameos, sketches and skits. A quick glance at Gilliam's Monty Python history proves the lighter side of Tom Bombadil would be no trouble at all - with Python's surrealist stylings cut from the same cloth as Tom's whimsical little corner of Old Forest, where Sauron's darkness never penetrated.
Gilliam's physical appearance mirrors Tolkien's written description, and his legendary status as a filmmaker/comic lends itself to the reverence Tom Bombadil commands in Middle-earth. More importantly, Monty Python & The Holy Grail serves as a hilarious parody of the fantasy genre, based (very) loosely around the legend of King Arthur. There's a distant connective tissue between the 1975 Monty Python film and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings that would make Terry Gilliam a natural addition to live-action Middle-earth.
Alan Cumming may not possess the at-a-glance Tom Bombadil visage of Terry Gilliam or Jim Broadbent, but the Scottish thespian holds all the tools needed to play Tolkien's oddest literary creation. A rich background in theater (Shakespearean and otherwise) gives Cumming the dramatic intelligence many others among Middle-earth's live-action cast (both past and present) also possess. Similar to Ben Kingsley, Cumming could also be mistaken for a stage magician - arguably a vital characteristic for anyone portraying Lord of the Rings' Tom Bombadil.
But it's Alan Cumming's "wacky" roles that earn his place among the candidates for Amazon's Bombadil. The overblown Fegan Floop of Spy Kids, Loki in Son of the Mask, flirty King James in Doctor Who - all ridiculous and outlandish performances that stopped short of complete farce thanks to Cumming's foundation as a "serious" actor. A similar balance will be required for live-action Tom Bombadil - not every performer can get away with singing about their bright blue jackets and yellow boots and still be taken seriously. Cumming is also one of the better vocalists listed here, which could prove useful when performing Bombadil's greatest hits.
Tom Bombadil is a very musical character, so it makes sense to cast a musician in the role. Ed Sheeran might've come into consideration were it not for that awful Games of Thrones cameo, leaving Sting (The Police frontman, not Bilbo's sword) as the most obvious actor/musician pick. The long association between The Lord of the Rings and The Beatles, however, puts Paul McCartney ahead of his fellow bassist. At the height of their 1960s fame, the Fab Four sought to adapt Tolkien's magnum opus, with each member playing one of the main cast (McCartney was lined up for Frodo). The project mercifully went unmade, but casting Paul as Tom Bombadil would bring his decades-long Lord of the Rings association full circle.
The Fellowship of the Ring's Tom Bombadil chapters are remarkably trippy in comparison to the rest of the story. The Beatles obviously took inspiration from Tolkien, and the Hobbits' brief stay with Bombadil is undoubtedly where those two worlds cross over most strongly. McCartney is no stranger to acting either, and even cameo-ed in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Paul McCartney as Tom Bombadil in Amazon's The Lord of the Rings would be fantastic meta casting, and few could get their lips around the character's musical interludes better. Sorry, Ringo.