First Look at Mysterious The Lord of the Rings Character Tom Bombadil in The Rings of Power

Tom Bombadil is in season two of The Rings of Power, marking the character’s first appearance in a mainline The Lord of the Rings adaptation.

Tom Bombadil is a mysterious character who appears in J. R. R. Tolkien’s original works with an unknown origin but seeming omnipotence over the land in which he lives. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo and co stumble upon Bombadil in the Old Forest as part of an almost dreamlike and song-filled encounter during which ‘Old Tom’ wears the One Ring without any effect.

Tom Bombadil famously failed to make an appearance in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy or the subsequent Hobbit movies. But he is set to appear in The Rings of Power Season 2, played by Rory Kinnear, M’s chief of staff in the last four James Bond movies. Vanity Fair has images of the character as he appears in his house during a meeting with the Stranger from Season 1. According to the publication, Tom Bombadil appears in the show “along with his jolly songs and his flamboyant wardrobe.”

The Rings of Power give Bombadil a second home on the outskirts of a region called Rhûn, according to Vanity Fair “In our story, he has gone out to the lands of Rhûn, which we learn used to be sort of Edenic and green and beautiful, but now is sort of a dead wasteland,” co-showrunner J.D. Payne said. “Tom has gone out there to see what’s happened as he goes on his various wanderings.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Trailer Stills

Halflings Nori and Poppy along with the Stranger, teased to be Gandalf in Season 1, are also in the area. “When he finally crosses paths with the Stranger, you could say he has a desire to try to keep the destruction that has happened there from spreading to his beloved lands in the West,” Payne added. “He nudges the Stranger along his journey, which he knows will eventually protect the larger natural world that he cares about. So I’d say our Tom Bombadil is slightly more interventionist than you see in the books, but only by 5% or 10%.”

It’s a busy time for The Lord of the Rings adaptations. Rings of Power Season 2 kicks off in August 29, then there’s anime The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim due out in December. There are two new Lord of the Rings movies in the works, too, the first of which is Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.