If there's one name, one voice, one persona that fans of The Lord of the Rings can attach to film series, it is that of Andy Serkis, whose performance as the wretched, tortured Sméagol — aka Gollum — has remained a cultural touchstone for the last 20 years. More recently, Serkis dove back into the world of Tolkein, narrating the audiobook for The Hobbit in 2020, followed by the complete Lord of the Rings in 2021. Though each of these are remarkable accomplishments in their own right, the English actor is far from done with the world of Middle-earth.
In an interview with Collider's own Steve Weintraub for his fantastic work on Andor, Serkis revealed that he's going to be narrating the audiobook for Tolkein's The Silmarillion, one of the influences behind Prime Video's wildly successful series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
When asked whether he'd been watching Rings of Power, and what his thoughts were, Serkis replied that he had seen and enjoyed the show. He went on to elaborate:
Yeah, I absolutely watched it, and it really - once you get through understanding the rules of it, and actually how loyal to the trilogy and the feel of the trilogy music by Howard Shore for the opening sequence, et cetera - I found it incredibly engaging, and I really, really enjoyed watching it. And also, because I'd done an audiobook recording of The Lord of the Rings, and read the appendices, and had to read them out loud, I was quite clued up about where it was going to go, which was great, and it was really helpful because I'm going to be - don't tell anybody - reading The Silmarillion, as well. So you heard this first. Yeah, no, so I really enjoyed it very much so.
Though he is set to return to Middle-earth soon, currently Serkis can be seen on the Disney+ Star Wars series Andor, where he plays Imperial prisoner Kino Loy opposite Diego Luna's Cassian Andor. This marks a return to the Galaxy Far, Far Away for Serkis, who appeared in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and briefly in The Rise of Skywalker behind a heavy motion-capture mask as Supreme Leader Snoke, who attempts to train Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) in the ways of the Dark Side.
Andor is streaming now on Disney+. Look for our full conversation with Andy Serkis soon.