Jamie Campbell Bower is making the leap from the Upside Down to Middle-earth, and it turns out the journey wasn't as simple as a quick phone call. The Stranger Things star, known for terrifying audiences as Vecna, has joined the cast of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for its upcoming third season. But according to showrunner Patrick McKay, finding the right actor to play Celeborn—Galadriel's long-missing husband—was a monumental task that involved hundreds of auditions.
In an exclusive interview with Collider, McKay revealed that the casting process for Celeborn was one of the most extensive in the show's history. Working with casting director Theo Park, the team sifted through hundreds of tapes before narrowing the field to a handful of actors who were invited to do chemistry reads with Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel. Despite being familiar with Bower's work, McKay admitted that the creative team didn't know they'd found their Celeborn until they actually met him in person.
"We always knew we wanted Celeborn to come back in an unexpected way and to be on Galadriel's journey," McKay said. "But then it comes time to make Season 3, and you've got to cast him. We work with a great casting director, Theo Park. We saw hundreds of tapes. She saw even more than that. And then we brought a few people in to do chemistry reads with Morfydd. We did not know Jamie. We knew and were fans of his work, and felt there was something there. But it wasn't until we walked in the room that we realized, we have a Celeborn, and this is it."
McKay drew parallels to the casting of Clark herself in Season 1, when the producers instantly knew they'd found their Galadriel. "It was the same in Season 1 with casting Morfydd. We didn't know her; we had no idea. Then we met her, and within five minutes, it was like, we have a show," he recalled. "And with Celeborn, it was scary. I mean, you're trying to match her energy. He has to be, you know, the yin to her yang in a way. You need to believe their chemistry and believe the history there. And you want someone who's going to bring something out in her. And you also want somebody who we all want to work with."
McKay praised Bower as a "wonderful addition on screen and off," noting that the actor's willingness to integrate into the tight-knit cast was crucial. "We work very closely with one another, and we don't suffer fools, and we don't need somebody who's not going to be able to integrate. But lucky for us, Jamie is a wonderful addition on screen and off. We just feel lucky we got him. It's the fact that he was interested in doing it and said yes, and we got really lucky."
When Collider's Maggie Lovitt pointed out that Bower seemed almost perfectly suited to playing an Elf, McKay couldn't help but agree. "Totally, he's such an elf. Yeah, the show has been waiting for him," he said.
Celeborn has been a significant figure in Tolkien's mythology, but The Rings of Power has spent its first two seasons exploring Galadriel's story without him. The character was previously mentioned as her missing husband, with Galadriel believing he had been lost during the conflicts that preceded the show's events. In Tolkien's writings, Celeborn is an important Elven lord who eventually rules Lothlórien alongside Galadriel. Movie audiences will also recognize the character from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films, where he was portrayed by Marton Csokas.
Season 3 of The Rings of Power is currently streaming on Prime Video. For more on the series, check out our coverage of how the new season streamlines its narrative and what critics are saying about the latest episodes. Stay tuned to Collider for all the latest news and updates on the biggest and best movies and shows heading to your favorite streaming platforms soon.
