“In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit.” Right from the very first sentence of the very first Middle-earth book (itself titled The Hobbit), Hobbits have been a fixture of Tolkien’s stories. So when showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay first set out to tell a story in the Hobbit-free Second Age of Middle-earth for Prime Video’s streaming series The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power (Peter Jackson’s films and the original novels are set thousands of years later in the Third Age), they were faced with a conundrum: how do you conjure that world without featuring its most notable inhabitants?
The answer was the Harfoots – beings who feature in the original Tolkien lore as the Hobbits’ predecessors. These lot have those famous furry feet and short stature, but they haven’t settled in the Shire yet. Oh, and one of them – by the name of Sadoc Burrows – is played by none other than Lenny Henry. “We’re a nomadic tribe, moving with the weather and the fertility of the crops. We have big caravans on wooden wheels and we’re very good at hiding things, because humans are much bigger than us and bring trouble,” Henry tells Empire of the Harfoot way of life. And while they’re not exactly Hobbits, they’ll still be playing a Hobbit-like role in the wider tale. “We’re the traditional Tolkien little guy,” explains Henry. “Traditionally, the little people in this world provide comedy but also get to be incredibly brave. You’re going to see us run the full gamut of emotions and actions in this adventure.”
For Henry, taking on the role of Sadoc Burrows not only allowed him to play in the fantasy genre that he loves – it also offered an opportunity to help shift the needle on a world that previously hasn’t tended to feature people of colour in prominent roles. “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it,” he says. “Finally, in this show, kids are going to see people of colour taking up space in the centre of a fantasy series. We’re very visible in this world and that’s very exciting.” The Harfoots’ journey is about to begin.
Empire’s world-exclusive The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power issue takes a deep-dive into Prime Video’s epic fantasy series, with three covers to collect. Inside, we explore its epic scale, its many inhabitants, and its multi-year plan to tell a whole new tale in a beloved world, speaking to showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, director and executive producer J.A. Bayona, producer Ron Ames, and stars including Morfydd Clark, Lenny Henry, Robert Aramayo, Markella Kavenagh, and Benjamin Walker. All that, plus tons of never-before-seen images. Find a copy on newsstands from Thursday 9 June, and pre-order a copy with your choice of covers here. The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power starts streaming from 2 September.